A Hedgehog Story: World Adventure
by VioletMoonlights
Summary: Eight months afterward, Eggman appears again with revenge and a new plot. It's now up to me, Sonic, Dylan, Shadow, and some new friends to save the world now...well, two worlds. Sequel to A Hedgehog Story.
1. Unbelievable

A Hedgehog Story: World Adventure

Chapter 1 Unbelievable

Eight months…

It was last summer when I last saw Sonic and the rest of his friends. It's now the beginning of the next year, 2010, and my life has been a rollercoaster as those eight months flew by.

A good part was that my and my brother's parents were extremely overjoyed and surprised when we showed up when we got home. They asked us and Dylan a bunch of questions on what happened and how did we get back. I couldn't lie, so I explained everything, but it just left them saying that it was too childish to believe.

"Court! Show them the ring Sonic gave you!" My best friend shook my right shoulder. I then took off the luminous ring from my wrist, and showed it to them. It was then that they believed.

The same thing happened to Dylan with his parents. I then showed my ring to them, and they instantly believed.

Another good thing is that Dylan and I were getting more close as friends. As soon school started, we had a class together and we got to talk and hung out at times. But I lost the class with him during second semester, but now I get to see him during my lunch hour, and hang out on weekends for a few times during each month.

And for the last good things, I made another friend at school (which is awesome, because I'm super shy when it comes to school, and other places with people), a guy named Trevor. He's really nice and a funny guy to be with, but he can be…well…picky at times.

Along with that, I finally had gotten back in contact with one of my good friends that I haven't spoke for over a year. Her name is Ellen. We met a few years ago when my other good friend, Chel's, invited both of us over to her place to hang out, and we've been friends ever since. It's good to hear from her again.

As for the bad things…

Over those eight months, I sometimes thought non-stop about Sonic. I couldn't help but wonder what he's doing or how he's feeling…I know it was unhealthy for me to do that.

I wore his ring he'd given me on my left wrist everyday since the day I left (it was now my permanent bracelet), and its light never did fade. But now every time I look at it, I begin to wonder nonstop.

Almost everyday, from the rest of the summer to when I get home from school; I always walked down to the creek and deep into the forest where the portal was once was. Like I was hoping for it to magically appear and then enter the blue blur's world once again.

But every time I came, nothing was there. It was just another open space in the forest.

"What am I doing…?" I stood there in the woods once again, looking at the same emptiness. Thunder boomed in the distance, meaning that rain was going to downpour soon.

I laughed. "I'm so stupid for doing this till now, why won't I accept that I'm never going to see Sonic again…?"

Thunder boomed, again from the distance. Rain now started to fall heavily. With it being the middle of February, no leaves were on the trees to protect me from the heavy shower. It was only the beginning of me being wet.

"…Maybe it's because I don't want to let go of our friendship." I spoke as cold drops of water splashed on my head, face, almost everywhere around me. I rolled up my left sleeve from my ivy green jacket and looked at the glowing ring on my wrist for the millionth time in the row. My eyes lowered in sadness.

"I'll never forget you." I spoke, and then covered the ring back in my ivy green sleeve.

I was getting soaked. But before I can get any wetter, I then fled from the forest, to the road, driveway, and back into my nice, dry home.

I didn't return to the forest ever since.

* * *

_Riiinnng!_ The bell had rung in my school for my second class. I instantly got out from my seat, sped down the hall, to the commons, up the stairs, and into another hall, and saw and met up with my best friend, Dylan, who was by his locker at the time. I didn't have anything to do between these hours, so I hung with Dylan for the next five minutes.

It was kind of hard getting to him though; many of his friends have lockers by his, and also decide to hang out with him as well between hours. He's a popular guy, unlike myself. But he always manages to get to and giving me a short hug.

"How are you this morning?" He asked me in a chipper morning mood. I made a small smile.

"I'm good, just tired." I answered.

"Hey have you seen those posters around?" He questioned me again.

I raised an eyebrow. "What posters?"

He then pointed to where the water fountains were, and above it was a small hot pink poster that said, 'Dylan for Sweetheart King!' with a picture of Shadow on the bottom.

The Sweetheart dance was coming up, and Dylan was one of the nominations for Sweetheart King. I gasped when I found out, and was happy that my best friend had gotten nominated for a thing like that.

"Some of my friends were posting them around the school, but I keep telling them that I didn't want this." Dylan laughed. "And yet, some people are ripping them down." His voice lowered.

"Well that's ignorant…but I bet you'll win anyways!" I then smiled, trying to cheer him up while my beginning anger disintegrated. He laughed again.

"Thanks Court! Oh! The time! Let's get going, shall we?"

We walked to my next class together while talking about random things along the way. Then we gave each other hug, said our goodbyes, and thus leaving me to enter my class as the bell rung while Dylan rushed to his, being tardy. But I knew his teacher was nice enough not to count it against him.

As soon my second hour was done and over with, I headed for my third hour, for which Trevor was in. I ran across more of Dylan's posters along the way, seeing a bunch among the halls, and some couple crumbled on the floors in the hallway.

"Some people…" I sighed as I entered through the doorway to my third class, which was geometry.

Trevor was sitting in his seat, which was in front of mine. As soon as I sat down, he quickly turned back and stared at me with a silly grin drawn on his face. It made me laugh with him looking at me like this, but yet again, it freaked me out in a way.

"What?" I asked him, while making a nervous giggle.

"Nothing." He replied. His smile never faded.

Another sigh escaped from my mouth. "Why are you staring at me?"

He didn't say anything this time; half the time he's like this whenever I come in third hour. This only meant that it was time for a topic.

"Hey have you seen Dylan's posters?" I asked him while my smile appeared again. I couldn't help but to be excited for my best friend.

"Yeah I saw them. I can't believe that he's nominated! He's got my vote!" Trevor answered while he jumped out of his seat in an excited tone. Jamie, who was one of our friends, looked up at Trevor like he's was hyped up on sugar.

"Geez Trevor, can you get even more hyped up?" She told him while Trevor's attention was fully on her. Then they fakily argued for a little while till our teacher had come into the classroom.

"Quiz time!" She told the students as she gotten out papers and passed them out to everyone, with included geometry problems that we've been working on frequently this week.

Normally, I study a little for quizzes like these, but this was a part of geometry that I did understand. So I probably will ace this one, which meant getting a C.

After that was done, I talked to Trevor again, and then the bell rung for my next class, then it rung again for the next, and soon it was lunch. Afterwards, my school day just passed by. Not like it didn't happen before, it always does if your last classes are art classes.

Art was something I enjoyed, and good in. I can draw pretty amazing pictures, as so as my friends tell me. For the past eight months, my whole sketchbook was filled with nothing but Sonic and his friends, and Dylan and I in our hedgehog forms. I drew other things too; it was just that was the only thing I liked to draw at the moment. I never seemed to get Sonic, his world, and our adventure, out of my mind.

Trevor always comes and visits me in this class, since our classrooms were in the same hallway. He has an art class at this time, which was Photography. I had Advanced Art.

"How come you don't draw me in hedgehog form in your book!?" Trevor made a fake whine when he saw me draw another adventure scene from my sketchbook. This time I was drawing me and Dylan with the fireflies.

"I told you Trevor, I don't know what you'll look like in hedgehog form." I made a soft laugh. "You have to find out when you enter Sonic's world…but I don't think you will be able to…"

Trevor made an unsure look at me. "Are you sure you're not making all this up?"

"I'm positive!" I yelled out. "Look at my ring for example!" I then uncovered my jacket's sleeve and showed my friend the glowing gold ring on my left wrist, which I showed him many times.

"Are you sure it's not battery powered?" He asked me, still unsure. He won't believe easily. I made a sigh.

"Fine, don't believe me…" I told him as I covered up my ring again. Then I went back to sketching my picture.

"It's not like I don't want to believe, but I can't imagine Sonic being real. He's just too..."

"Unreal to believe, I know." I finished his sentence as I looked at the clock ahead of me. It was almost time for school to be done.

I packed up my sketchbook, pencils, and other supplies into my bookbag and hung it over my left shoulder. Trevor had done the same with his things, and he went over and gave me a goodbye hug.

"I'm sorry. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" He told me as he released me, and then got a head start of exiting by standing by the doorway.

The bell rung.

"Yeah." I told him as we both entered the hallway, which was immediately filled with rushing teens. He disappeared into the crowd when he got further away.

As time passed, the week was finally done and over with, continuing with the same routine everyday. But it doesn't mean I gotten tired of it, it just needed more excitement to it.

Luckily, the Sweetheart Dance was tonight. And I'm already starting to get ready.

After my mom pulled up and fixed my hair, I then slipped on into my nice short dark blue dress. As I looked into the mirror, I twirled around playfully a couple of times to see the sparkles glitter at the bottom of my dress. Which reminds me, Sonic's ring…

Knowing that gold wouldn't match with the dress, but the ring was something that held a memory to me. So, I had to wear it. As I looked in the mirror again, something was missing, like I needed another piece of jewelry to wear along with it.

I digged in my jewelry box, which was in front of my mirror, and then grabbed my indecent jewel necklace that my grandma had given me as a gift for last Christmas.

I wore it every now and then when I went to school or any other occasion. But the weird thing is, when I wore it, it felt like I was instantly calmer, as if the worry has escaped from my body. But maybe I was imagining it, this jewel can't contain a magic power, it's not even real…but what if it was?

I shook the idea away from my memory, put on the necklace, and finally gotten the last touches of my makeup on. Soon, my dad called for me to take some pictures, since I was dressy, and then he drove me to my school.

As I passed through the entrance and into the commons, which the dance was held, loud music flooded my ears as I saw many crowds of people sitting, standing, and dancing. But there was no sign of my friends. Usually I get nervous at a time like this, but strangely the emotion wasn't responding at the moment. The jewel? No…

When I was squeezing myself through a maze filled with teens, I finally found one of my friends. It was Chel's and she was dancing along with some of her friends.

"Chel's!" I screamed her name over the music till she noticed me. She rushed to me with a big grin and given me a hug.

"You look nice!" She told me after the hug, still grinning.

"You too!" I replied as I looked at her in her long black dress.

After I danced with her along with her friends for a few songs, I took up my courage and decided to go through the dancing crowds again to see if any more of my friends are in there. It was then I found Trevor, and his girlfriend, Brittney.

"Court!" He screamed my name when I was searching, and I turned around and saw the both of them.

"You look amazing!" Trevor and his girlfriend complemented. I smiled.

"Thank you! And you guys do too!" I replied. And just like with Chelsea and her friends, I danced to a few songs with them.

While dancing to a song, I spotted Dylan nearby along with a huge group of his friends, dancing away. I automatically smiled when I spotted him, and then I tried my best to get to him, again, through the sea of dancing people.

I came up behind him, and made a little poke on one of his shoulders. He turned around and smiled at me. But even though he was smiling, I can see that he was nervous about the King thing.

"Hey Court!" He said and gave me a hello hug. "How are you?"

"Doing good!" I said peppy, I was truly having a nice time at the dance so far. "How about you?"

"Good!" He answered. Yet again, I can see his nervousness. Maybe my necklace would help him, if it helped me…No! It's just my imagination.

"Excited about the Sweetheart court?" I asked him. He made a nod.

"Yeah, kinda nervous though." I knew it…

"Don't worry. I'm sure everything will be fine!" I reassured him. Another smile appeared on his face, but this time without the nervousness.

"Thanks Court!" He told me, as a smile appeared on my face again.

After dancing with him and his friends for a few songs, I then squeezed my way through people again, and got back to Chel's and her buddies, and of course, danced.

But as soon I announced in my mind that this was the best time I had a school dance, a large crash occurred on where the DJ's were. Glass shot everywhere as the huge windows on the back of the school were broken, and teens started to scream and dodge the sharp clear falling pieces.

"What's going on!?" I heard Chelsea say in a panic, along with others, after she uncovered her eyes.

I looked ahead, seeing a giant goofy-styled robot standing on where the windows were. And on top of it was a big man in red and black, with a huge orange mustache—Dr. Eggman!?!?

"What!?!?" I blurted out in shock, staring at the villain that caused soo much trouble and worry during the most of my summer. Now he's back!?

"Hahahahohoho! Finally I'm back in this world! And after through that all that grief to getting those Chaos Emeralds! Sonic will pay when he gets here to save _her_…"

When Eggman said the last word of his sentence, he was staring right below at me.

With wide eyes, I stared at Eggman for a few seconds in shock. But when my adrenaline was now running through my veins, I ran out from the scene, to the front door. But before I pushed the doors to the outside, a giant metal hand grabbed me and pulled me back to Eggman. Like of what happened to Sonic in the beginning of Sonic Unleashed.

"Court!" I heard Chel's screaming my name below me.

"Why are you here!? What do you want from me!?" I started to scream fully at the foolish Doctor in front of me, as I tried to escape from the grasp from his cold metal robot. Like always, he responded with a laugh.

"I have made other plans to conquer both your world and my world. But my main plan now is revenge! And it starts by killing you!"

As soon Eggman said his last sentence, rockets came out and appeared on the chest of the robot, aiming at its target, which was me.

"Hahaha! Goodbye!" Eggman waved at me as he pressed a button on his robot to release the rockets. During all this, I heard screams from my friends and people below, and I watched my life flash before my eyes just when a few seconds before the rockets had me.

Suddenly, a blue streak flashed in front of me to push the rockets off course. The rockets exploded somewhere nearby. The next flash, it grabbed me and destroyed the hand of which the robot gripped on me.

As I meet the ground, still holding on, I looked at my rescuer in the same way I did with Eggman. But this time, the shock was more fortunate than unfortunate. Eight long months…and I got to see him once again.

Sonic the Hedgehog.


	2. Continuing what was left

**AN: Eh, I honestly think I did poorly on this one ^^' but dispite that, I hope that you'll enjoy it!**

Chapter 2 Continuing what was left

"Sonic…?" I whispered the blue hedgehog's name in surprise as I continually stared at his face. His eyes were full of enlightment, and his mouth formed into a big smile. Already telling, I could see that he missed me as much as I missed him.

"Hey Court, long time no see." He told me happily. He let me onto the floor, and I quickly bent down and grabbed hold of his form again and hugged him tight.

"I thought I was never going to see you again…" I whispered as slowly tears went down on my cheeks. He hugged back for a few moments and then released and wiped off the remaining tears on my face.

"Me too, Court…You don't know how happy I am to see you." He softly replied. I smiled and stood back up again. As we both turned to face the crowd, we saw all of the dressed-up teenagers staring back at us, watching us, with all surprised reactions.

"Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Is this for real?"

"What's going on!"

Everyone started to mumble and ask confusingly and continuously around the group, some people started to come up to see the blue blur himself, but Eggman's growl behind us made them stop in their tracks and back away.

"You think that a simple broken hand means that I'm finished! How dare you just ignore me like that!" I suddenly felt cold metal embrace on to me again and I was lifted off the ground once more. I turned only to see Eggman's face reddened with anger, which lead to me turning my head quickly back.

"Sonic!" I screamed while looking down on him.

"Court!" Sonic jumped high into the air and then spun into a ball, ready to shred the middle of the robot, the power core of the Egg Giant. But Eggman thought quickly and kicked Sonic out like a soccer ball, by using one of the robot's feet. He crashed deep into the wall on the right side of the school building.

"Score!" Eggman laughed along with the teens below me panicking and screaming again. All knowing that the hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, was injured, there was nothing left to save them. Most of the teens started to head out and escape through the high school front doors, like scared mice heading towards the same hole.

The egg-shaped doctor laughed even louder by seeing this scene. But while he was busy doing that, I was trying my best to squirm out of the robotic hand. Unfortunately, Eggman saw and gripped me as hard as he can with his Egg Giant. It was so tight that I couldn't breathe, and my circulation of my blood was cutting short. It almost felt like I was about to faint.

"Hahahahoho! This is more fun to watch other than seeing you burst into flames! I wonder what will happen if I gripped you harder…?" Eggman laughed once more and pressed and held a button on his control panel, to make the hand grip tighter. If he continued doing this, I bet most of the bones in my body will snap.

It kept tightening.

"Aahhh!" I screamed out in complete pain. But before the hand gripped more tightly, a flash of fire flew directly at Eggman, and hit him directly in the face. Now Eggman was the one yelling in pain. The tightening loosened.

"Fire?" I said weakly as I looked down to see the one who threw the flame. In complete surprise, it was Dylan. He looked up at Eggman with his face furious, and his right hand up in the air, already lit with another flame.

_Dylan! He had his power the whole time! Wait…if that means he's has his still, maybe I…_

"You think you can just get away from destroying the dance, me winning Sweetheart King, hurting Sonic, and one of my bestest friends! I DON'T THINK SO!" Dylan screamed out in full anger as he threw out another flame at the Doctor. Another successful hit.

While Eggman was distracted by his burns, I now had time to concentrate on my power. Hopefully I had it still. I closed my eyes, thinking of the violet shield that I used plentiful of times during our adventure last summer.

As I opened my eyes once again, I saw that I was in the purplish sphere once again. By summoning it, I now was freed from the grip, and yet, destroyed of the hand of the Egg Giant. The only bad thing now is, was that I was falling.

"Court!" Dylan jumped and caught me airborne. We shortly fell to the hard ground and slid across the floor. Moments after we stopped, we then saw Chel's and Trevor hovering over us, two of the remainder that decided to stay here. They gave us a hand.

"Thanks for saving me." I smiled at my best friend while Chelsea helped me up. He scratched his head and made a smile as well, like it was no problem.

"Anytime." He chuckled. "To tell you the truth…I didn't know that I still had my power. It was the first time in awhile that I've been this angry…my anger must have triggered it…"

Again, I looked at him in surprise. Then I looked at myself. "I still have mine as well. By seeing you with yours, it given me the chance to try it out and then breaking out of the robot's grip." I chucked too as I looked at him again. "Double thanks!"

"What's going on?" Chelsea asked confusingly before Dylan had the chance to reply back. Trevor walked closely to me.

"I apologize Court…you are right." He told me. "And all this time I thought you were a lunatic!"

I was offended of what Trevor had said, wanting me to say something offensive back, but instead I answered Chelsea's question.

"Remember the time when Dylan and I were gone for a long period of time during the summer…and the story I told you when I gotten back?"

"Yeah! But I didn't think that Sonic—and this would be real! I honestly thought you were making it all up!" Chelsea outburst. Just like Trevor, she didn't believe either. Maybe showing her Sonic's ring will make her understand.

I went and touched the ring on my left wrist, only to feel naked skin. I quickly looked and saw that the gold ring was gone. Like in most cases like these, I would panic. But twice on the same night, it didn't occur to me. Maybe it came off my wrist whenever Dylan caught me in the air.

But before I gotten the chance to say or started looking for it, Dylan quickly grabbed a hold of my right arm.

"Sonic's hurt remember! We need to help him!" He reminded me.

While the four of us ran to the rescue on the right wall of the commons, a foot of the Egg Giant stomped and blocked our way. On the top, I saw Eggman, now with burn marks. He looked madder then ever.

"You…you two will pay for THIS!" Eggman screamed out and raised the same foot high into the air and was ready to squish us. I huddled everyone close to me and gotten my power prepared. But a flash of light green light blinded all four of us and then teleported to another location in the commons. As I looked around after that sudden occurrence, I saw Shadow standing close to the group with a smug on his face.

"Shadow!" Both Dylan and I shrieked. As if with instinct; I glomped right at him and given him a tight hug.

"Shadow! I missed you!" I told him, happy that he was here as well with Sonic. He hugged tightly in return.

"I heard from Sonic that Eggman was continuing his plans on ruling both of our worlds." Shadow said as he released me. "When he asked me to come along to stop him, I knew it was going to lead me here, to your world." He continued to smug.

Before Shadow or the rest of us said anything else, Eggman was coming right back at us with his robot. It was making loud metallic steps while it ran across the hard floor.

Shadow ran in front of our group, protecting us, but while the Egg Giant still ran and gotten more closer, a blue ball went right through the middle of the monstrous machine and stopped it. It then collapsed and started to twitch in malfunction, then set off a small explosion. I saw Eggman jump right out before it had happened.

As the blue ball reached to the ground, it unrevealed itself and showed an injured Sonic, now started walking to us with a weak, but, confident smile.

"Oh my God!" Trevor squealed at the sight.

"Hey! You're okay!" Dylan said joyfully as Sonic reached us. He then bent down and gave him a hello hug as well. "Welcome back, Sonic!"

"It's nice to see again, buddy!" Sonic patted his back and then released from the embrace. Dark laughter was faintly heard close by.

"Ignoring me again I see…Heh, you won't be ignoring me once I use this!" Eggman spoke while he stood back up, looking like a mess, and revealed a small remote-like invention with a jewel strapped on to the middle of it. It looked similar to the one that was on my necklace. It was glowing a multitude of colors, an iridescent.

"After a little research, I figured out that your world and ours are not so different at all. Your world also contains mysterious gems that have grand power, like our Chaos Emeralds. But this here is a Harmonic Iridescent. Opposite from Chaos Emeralds, it causes peace and harmony to everything that touches it." Eggman started to explain. Sonic raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Peace? Harmony? That doesn't sound like your cup of tea, Eggman! Unless you really did turn over a new leaf?" Sonic pointed at Eggman with his right index finger.

"Haha! That would be too good to be true, you pesky hedgehog! These Harmonic Iridescents may bring peace, but in each one of these beauties has the power of seven Chaos Emeralds combined!"

"All that power…" Shadow said with shocked eyes.

"Yes Shadow, with that power, I could teleport to anywhere in our two worlds! Saving me the trouble of collecting the Chaos Emeralds every time they separate after use! With these, I'm going to combine our worlds together! HAHAHA!"

We were now all in shock. "WHAT!"

Sonic was serious. "Eggman! Think what you're doing! You gonna create a lot of problems if you do this!" He argued with the egg-shaped doctor, but like always, he made a repeated laugh.

"Yeah for you! Once I'm in power, you all are going to pay for what you did to me months ago, and now! Well, except for you Sonic. I have different plans for you; after all, you caused destruction for me for almost half my life." Eggman growled at Sonic, but the blue hedgehog made a giggle and rubbed his nose with his right index finger.

"Glad to be a part of it." He replied proudly with a smile on his face.

"Whatever. Now! I shall be going!" Eggman pressed a button on his remote and pointed the invention at some random space in the commons. After three seconds, a portal appeared where the space once was. the Doctor turned to us and made one last laugh, as if he was daring us to follow, and then went on into the portal to who knows where. Sonic then grabbed both my and Dylan's arms, and dashed towards the light-filled abyss, but we both managed to stop him in his tracks.

"Sonic! We can't go just yet!" Dylan yelled out while his shoes were screeching across the floor. The blue hedgehog stopped, and let go to face the two of us, wondering why we did say such a thing.

"But if we can't catch up, then he'll be ahead of his plans! We need to stop him at all costs if he wants to merge the worlds together!" Sonic explained to Dylan and me.

I then looked at Sonic with a sad yet serious expression. "I understand Sonic…but we can't just leave unprepared. And our family, well, they need to know about this too. I don't want them having heart attacks again." I explained.

"Oh! Oh! And I want to be a part of this too!" Chelsea said in her bubbly attitude while she ran at the three of us. Trevor tagged along-side.

"I'm in too!" He said cheery. "What could be more epic then going on an adventure with Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Sonic stood there in front of all of us while he closed both of his eyes, thinking of the best strategy. After a few minutes, his eyes opened, and announced his decision.

"A few days wouldn't hurt, after all, we _do_ need to prepare…and we _do_ need all the help we can get." Sonic winked at both Chelsea and Trevor. By that action, they both squealed in excitement. Shadow slowly came from where we were once standing, and walked by Sonic.

"Wise choice, Faker." He said while making a smirk at him. Sonic just made a small laugh.

"Yeah well, a couple of days here would be nice. Besides, we might be able to find one of those Harmonic Iridescent gems that Egghead has, here. If we get them before he does, then our worlds would be safe."

While Dylan and the rest of my friends started to have a conversation of their own, I silently listened to Sonic and Shadow's session. I gripped and looked at the jewel that I wore on my necklace. It didn't glow like Eggman's did; it only reflected the lights in room and glittered, like normal.

Shadow grunted. "Shouldn't we be worrying about the Chaos Emeralds as well? After all, the Doctor wants to grab all the power he can get."

Sonic rubbed his chin. "Heh heh, so it's going to be like a jewel hunt! Maybe you should ask your girlfriend, Rouge, to help us?" Sonic then pointed at Shadow and snickered. The back hedgehog growled deep in his throat.

"She's not my girlfriend...she's a friend that's a girl, no more."

Before both conversations continued, we heard sirens and horns outside the front of the school building. Looking through the glass of the windows, I saw the police, ambulance, and fire trucks all grouping around in the parking lots. Dylan, Chelsea, Trevor and I started to panic.

"Um we should leave like now." Dylan said while he saw people exiting out of the vehicles, now heading for the doors.

Sonic looked at Shadow again, still snickering. "Shadow? Would you do the honors?"

Shadow made another growl at him and told all six of us to group together. Reaching for something behind him, he grabbed the green Chaos Emerald he'd used earlier. It glowed a brilliant light.

"Chaos Control!" He yelled and soon we we're engulfed in light. But before we teleported, I took one last glimpse of the portal that Eggman made to escape. There, I saw three human silhouettes about to enter right through it.

The one in the middle had my gold ring.


	3. Sleepover

**AN: I keep getting this feeling I'm doing bad on these chapters _ but maybe I'm overreacting and thinking too much. But anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter! ^^**

Chapter 3 Sleepover

When the bright green light disintegrated from Shadow's green Chaos Emerald, all of us appeared on the entrance of my long black driveway, leading up to my pale yellow house. Chelsea and Trevor started freaking out, but in an exciting yet wondrous way.

"Soo this is where you live." Trevor started to nudge me in the shoulder with his right elbow and also raising his eyebrows. I lowered my eyelids when I looked at him, not a perfect time to make me angry. I walked to Shadow.

"Shadow, you need to take me back!" I shouted to him. He looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Go back? You did notice the police and the people surrounding the school? Right?"

I nodded. "Yes, I did. But the gold ring Sonic had given me was there! It slipped off my wrist whenever we were battling and running away from that Egg Giant. When I gave a last look of the portal before we left, I saw three people about to enter through it, and one of them had the ring!"

Sonic overheard the conversation and now was over to me in a sonic second.

"Someone stole your ring?" He asked me seriously. "Are you sure?"

I sadly made another nod.

"This isn't good…" Sonic did a facepalm. "That ring was a power ring. If anyone uses it other than just a keepsake then…well…we'll have problems."

Dylan looked worried. "What kind of problems?"

Sonic looked at him. "Obviously problems that Eggman most likely will do. If anyone randomly steals a glowing gold ring…heh heh…it's likely that they're not going to do anything good with it."

Shadow made a grunt. "Then what are you suggesting that we should do?"

Sonic looked at the black pavement driveway and thought for a few seconds, then raised his head back up again. "Either you or I should go back and enter through the portal, or we can stay here till we open up another portal back to our world."

By hearing their debate, I didn't want Shadow nor Sonic separated. We just saw each other again, and I didn't want either one to just go away to help receive the ring back from those mysterious people. I doubt they even know what they were going by passing through that portal, and I doubt they even know that ring was powerful. But if they knew, they wouldn't know how to use it. I knew it was powerful, only because Sonic told me and just by looking at it. But I didn't know what to do to release that power, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to release it.

Besides, with Sonic here, I don't need the ring as a remembrance anymore. I'll be fine without it for a few days.

"I know what we should do." I interrupted the hedgehogs' conversation while I thought up another suggestion. They both turned their attention to me, along with the rest of my friends. I formed a grin.

* * *

"I can't believe I'm letting her do this." I heard Shadow grumble by sitting on one of the two tan-colored couches in my living room. He was watching me, and Dylan sitting on the floor playing Sonic Heroes on two-player mode while Sonic and Trevor sat in-between him, watching us as well. Chelsea was watching us play on the nearest couch to us, cheering me on.

"C'mon Court! I know you can beat him! Show him that you're better!" She shouted.

"Hey! Who's the ultimate Sonic fan here?" Dylan argued with Chelsea, while he kept his eyes glued to the TV screen.

"Hey! Things can change! Now beat him Court!" Chelsea urged me on. I tried my best to get to the goal.

When we all got into my house, my parents were in complete silence when they saw Sonic and Shadow both standing in front of them in real life, not in a video game. They even did the exact same thing when I was testing Sonic to see if he was real or not.

They were also surprised to see three of my friends here as well. We then told them the situation at the school, and what Eggman was planning to do to the world, I asked them if I could go along and help Sonic and Shadow on the journey. This is what happened:

"No." My father said.

"Dad! I've done this before, trust me; I can take care of myself!" I argued back, with my voice raised.

"Courtney, a no is a no. You we're lucky to live whatever what you did on your last so-called 'journey'. But I will not let you out of this house until all this matter clears."

Before I could continue on with my argument, Shadow butted in.

"Excuse me, Courtney's father?" Shadow said in his deep voice, looking up at my father's serious face. "All of this 'matter' won't clear if we don't get as much help as we can get. Your daughter proved to herself and everyone that she isn't helpless and weak. She gave it her all to try to get to her brother, your son, and rescue him. She's quite the strong woman. Without her being with us, we won't be able to finish this 'matter' as quick as possible. So, I suggest you should say yes. If no…let's just say that there will be more than just us discussing normally."

Then, there was an awkward silence.

In the end however, my parents said I can go. My dad had a hard time saying it though, since Shadow was standing by him with crossed arms, making sure he'll make the right decision.

When that was done, everyone of my friends started to call their parents on their cell phones, telling them where they are, and telling them of the incident and what they'll be planning on doing for the next few weeks, or even months.

Dylan's parents agreed…

Then Trevor's…

But Chel's grandparents were the toughest to give in. They wouldn't let her leave.

Thus the whole Shadow thing started again.

Once everyone's parents/grandparents agreed, we decided to change out of our dressy clothes and get dressed to get ready for the fun and relaxation. Dylan and Trevor borrowed some of my dad's clothes, while I let Chelsea borrow a pair of mine.

And this is where we left off. Only a few moments later, I was defeated by Dylan by racing each other in Sonic Heroes. I stared at the TV screen with a blank face, while Dylan just laughed playfully at me.

"I told you, I wasn't going to hold back." He grinned at me, hoping that I won't get angry.

I was. But when I looked at him, it was hard to resist smiling at him. While I continued to look, he made one of those silly faces. I started to laugh till both of us did.

"Rematch." I spoke through my series of giggles, and then we restarted the level again.

"Hey! Court you said that it was going to be my turn next! You liar!" Trevor sprinted off the couch and then pointed at me with an index finger.

"Well I didn't make any promises." I laughed again while I continued to race through Ocean Palace in Sonic Heroes. So far, I was winning. But it all ended when Trevor sat down close to me and started to tickle my sides. I then paused the game, and fought with him for the time being.

Before Shadow or anybody else decided to gang up and hurt on Trevor, my parents walked into the living room and told us that they have to run errands, and also picking up the Chinese food that they've ordered for us not too long ago.

After they left, my two little brothers, Kyle and Ryan, entered the room and decided to join with us and attend the party.

"Can I come with you guys on your next adventure?" Kyle then asked Sonic and Shadow. After he asked, Ryan had said the same thing. Sonic made a little chuckle.

"Sorry guys, but we don't want you guys getting captured by Egghead. It'll be better and safer if you stayed here with your mom and dad." Sonic had told them. Kyle was beginning to get angry.

"But you remember all the stuff I did back then, right? I can beat Eggman's butt with my power! Please let me come!" Kyle begged.

"No, listen to what the Faker said. It's too dangerous for you and your other brother to come along." Shadow said seriously. Kyle stood there with his face reddened with complete anger. With him angry like this, Ryan or I were the next target for taking out on his anger.

Of course, he picked me this time.

"Why is it that you always have the fun? Why you instead of me? I have a greater power than you do! I should deserve to go!" Kyle yelled at me.

Before I gotten the chance to get up and reply back to the argument. Dylan got up and walked up in front and defended me through the whole argument. Once he won, Kyle had run off to his room to be alone and to cool off his temper. Another awkward silence took place.

The silence broke when my parents soon arrived home with our dinner. Once they brought it up, we all scavenged to the kitchen, grabbed plates and utensils, and shoveled Chinese food onto our plates. We all sat and ate in the dining room.

"Thanks for saving me three times in a row in one night." I said to Dylan before I scooped up some fried rice and put it into my mouth. Dylan stopped chewing and swallowed.

"Anytime!" He started chuckling while he stuck his fork into more of his Chinese food. "But you know…you owe me."

"Huh?" I said after swallowing another mouthful. I was too busy enjoying the taste of my favorite food, I didn't quite hear what Dylan or anyone else was saying in the room.

He shook his head while he smiled. "Just nevermind."

"Hey! This stuff is similar to the food I ate in Chun-nan!" Sonic made an outburst after taking his first bite of his Chinese. "How can you get food like this in your world, when it came from ours?"

I stared at him with a blank face for a minute, confused of what he said, and then I laughed.

"Sonic, when you think about it, your world is like ours in a way. It has similar countries and cultures, but different landscapes and places. This is Chinese food, it similar to the food that they have in China. A country in our world." I explained. Sonic was wide-eyed.

"Oh, really? So, did your parents just hopped on a plane and got the Chinese food from China?" He asked again, making sure.

I made a facepalm, and then I looked at Sonic again. I was trying to keep a straight face but I never stopped giving off a smile.

"No Sonic. They got the food from a little Chinese restaurant that they have in our town. It'll take too long, and too much money to go to China and back. We've never excited out of the country that we live in."

"You never visited to any other country in your world?" He said out in surprise. I took my last spoonful of Chinese food that I've had, ate it, and shook my head as a no. Sonic looked at the rest of my friends. "What about you guys?"

They all either shook their heads, like I did, or answered a no.

"Remember Sonic, people in this world don't live the same lives as we do in our world. I can tell that this world is more focused on reality other than fantasy." Shadow explained thoroughly to Sonic. The blue hedgehog made a smirk.

"You know…I'm pretty sure that all of those Harmonic things aren't just located in this place or even the country that you live in. Once we find one of them, we can teleport anywhere in your world to find the rest of them! How about that for an adventure?" Sonic said while he pointed at me. My heart started to race in excitement.

_Anywhere in the world…_

"Every country in the world!" Chelsea loudly asked Sonic, almost freaking out. Sonic looked almost freighted of her reaction, and then he nodded.

"Oh my gosh! Court! We can go to Japan!" She said shrieking while looking at me, her voice up high.

Dylan touched my left shoulder. "Not if we go to Italy first, right Court?" He looked me while he tilted his head and smiled big.

"Hey Dylan! We made plans for this a long time ago! So Japan first!" Chelsea yelled at Dylan. Yet again, another argument had started.

"Nope. Italy." Dylan said replied to her short and sweet.

"I was friends with her first!"

"Doesn't matter."

"She likes Japan better!"

"Psh! No she doesn't."

"Stop!"

"No, you stop."

The argument went on and on even after we finished dinner, and placed our plates into the kitchen. When we gotten back into the living room, Trevor butted in and told the both of them that he and I are going to Paris, France first. This left him by being hit on the back of his head by a pillow that I grabbed off a nearby couch.

"I was only kidding!" Trevor begged for mercy and tried to shield himself, but I kept hitting him anyway.

"Sure, Trevor…Sure."

Once that was over and done with, all of us played more games on the game consoles that I had, and then talked a little bit with one and other for at least an hour. As the conversations faded away one by one, we all fell asleep. But even through we were sleeping; we were still excited for the adventure that awaited us in the morning.


	4. Discovered

Chapter 4 Discovered

"Are you ready Chel's?" I asked Chelsea rashly but nicely by the edge of her closed door to her room. No reply. Hopefully she was almost done getting dressed. I then sighed and laid against the middle of the door, with both hands behind my back.

After spending two days at my house to recuperate, I then said my farewells and goodbyes to my family during our next morning. Since then, we've been teleporting to house to house so that my friends will get ready and say their goodbyes to their families as well. Unlucky for Chelsea, her family wasn't here at the moment, but when I looked at her, she didn't look bothered by that. She was in her usual bubbly cheerful self. Maybe she's excited because of the upcoming adventure that we were about to have. But who knows?

In her living room, was a couple of couches and chairs, all circled to a coffee table in the center of the room. When looked ahead, there was a normal-squared TV on a cabinet, along with a satellite system and a DVD player. Dylan and Trevor were sitting on one of the couches, starting a conversation. As I turned to Sonic and Shadow, they were already having one. I saw Sonic snickered to Shadow about something, and pointed at Chelsea's piano that was left-bottom corner of the living room. Shadow made a shrug and walked to the piano, and sat on a short chair next to it.

Within seconds, a sweet tune started to play. Even though I was surprised that Shadow knew how to play the piano, but I was surprised by the music he was playing. It sounded familiar…

Till I finally figured it out, Chelsea quickly opened her door, and it lead to me to falling backwards onto her floor in her room. The music stopped playing, and I saw everyone was looking at me in shock.

"Oh my gosh Court! I'm so sorry!" Chel's yelled out in apologize. Then she bent down to help me and gotten me on my feet again.

"I'm really really sorry!" She apologized more. "You alright?"

I laughed as I rubbed the back of my head. "Its fine Chelsea, I knew something like that was bound to happen."

"If you say so…Hey! Who was playing the piano?" Chelsea then questioned the people in the room after her focus was off me. She then turned to Shadow, who was the nearest to the instrument.

"It was me." Shadow answered her question without any guilt. "I was just playing what was on the music sheet. I hope that didn't upset you."

Chelsea widened her eyes, and shook her hands at him while shaking her head as well. "Oh no! Not at all! I'm just amazed that you could play that! I've been trying to learn that song on the piano for weeks."

"What? This?" Shadow questioned her as he played the soft tune on the piano again, but only using one hand.

"Oh my gosh! Yes!" Chelsea burst out in happiness. "Homage for Inuyasha!"

It was the same song that I figured out. It was a tune that came off from a show called _Inuyasha_. It was an anime that Chelsea, Ellen, and I cherished a few years ago. We thought it was the coolest show of all time back then, till we eventually gotten tired of it, and moved on with other interests.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed me playing this piece." Shadow chuckled afterwards. "And all I was doing was proving this Faker that I can play the piano." He then pointed to Sonic, who had a mean look on his face.

"Do you want me to continue on playing it?" The black hedgehog smirked at Chelsea, knowing that could make Sonic even more ticked.

Then an angry cough occurred, of course coming from Sonic. He was standing there pouting, with crossed arms and his right foot tapping in extreme speed, just like with his running. Chelsea ignored him and answered Shadow with a nod.

"Shadow, Chel's, we don't have time for this. Remember we still have to go to our school and explain why we won't be there for the next few weeks. And Chel's, do you even want to see your other friends before you have to leave?" Dylan interrupted and looked at Chelsea when he spoke his last sentence. "You won't be seeing them for about a month or so."

"Well duh! Of course!" Chelsea loudly replied to him. "I have to see Tay Tay, Kimi, Michelle…"

We all grouped up together, then Shadow raised up his glowing green Chaos Emerald in his hand, shouted 'Chaos Control', and then all of us teleported to the entrance of our high school. And Chelsea was still naming all of her friends. I could see that Dylan was getting a little annoyed by this.

"Court, I don't know how you can put up with her annoyingness." Dylan whispered to me while we walked to the entrance of the school. I giggled.

"I find it funny, actually." I said. "Plus, she's happy. I rather have her in her cheerful and peppy mood than any other mood, y'know?"

Dylan opened the door for me, as I quietly said a 'thank you'. I waited for his response.

"If you put it that way, then yeah. I rather have her happy."

As we entered, all of us looked around. We saw that everything in the school looked normal, as if nothing happened. All of it looked normal, except the huge broken windows that Eggman broke on the other side of the building. I saw a few men were working on it to get them repaired, and replace the glass.

We went into the office, and all of us separately told the ladies that were at the front desk that we weren't going present because of emergencies. And as we had hoped, they believed us.

When I turned around to head back, I noticed that Sonic and Shadow weren't here. It was then that I rushed out of the office and looked around the entry of the commons. They weren't there either. This would be the perfect timing for me to panic, but then again, I wore the necklace again today.

"What's wrong Court?" Dylan asked me in a worried tone. I quickly turned to him.

"Sonic and Shadow aren't here. Could they—" Trevor's laugh suddenly interrupted me.

"Court, they told me that they're going to stay outside and stay hidden. They'll track huge crowds if they did come in. Remember? They're fictional video game characters."

I made a facepalm. "Yeah, I forgot…everyone will spaz out like I did whenever I first encountered them."

All four of us stood around and talked till the bell rung shortly for lunch. Soon, all the people rushed down the stairs and hallways and headed for the tables and lunch lines. This was our cue to start looking for friends. But as we walked around to try to find somebody I knew, they found us instead.

"Trevor!" Trevor's girlfriend, Brittany called to him. He turned around and her arms were already chained around him. After their reunion, they quietly talked to each other, a sign for me to leave them be.

I looked over to my left side to see if Chelsea found anybody. But she disappeared. When I looked further away, I saw her chatting among with her girl pals. Talking endlessly to them in an excitedly and bubbly mood, like normal.

When I then turned over to Dylan, I saw many of his friends shouting his name, running to and giving him hugs. Soon more people started to crowd around him, and eventually I gotten swallowed up by the mob. Before it had gotten bigger, I squeezed my way though, and gotten back to free space.

"Dylan, is all this true? All of what happened back at the dance? Is Sonic real?" I heard that one of his best friends, David, ask him within the crowd.

"Yeah! And I also heard from somebody that you can make fire come out of your hands! Is that true too?" His friend Montana asked next, and soon it was followed by more questions.

After not hearing any responses or answers from Dylan, I tried my best to get a look above the crowd to see how he's doing. But I was keep getting pushed by more people trying to get into the mob. This was getting ridiculous…

After a few more pushes and shoves, I just unleashed my violet sphere and pushed most of the people out of the way, trying my best not to harm them in any way.

But after I made the barrier disappear, thinking that'll solve my problem, half of the mob came straight to me, asking me questions. Now I know why Dylan hasn't answered.

Before more people started squeezing around me, I heard a loud crash of glass nearby, and it was lead by screams of teenagers.

The people that were crowded around me saw what had happened, and then they started heading towards the front doors, panicking and screaming like the other teenagers of the school. Same thing of what happened to Dylan's crowd, but some of his closest friends stayed beside him. I saw Dylan look ahead and stared at the scene with shocked eyes.

As I looked ahead to what had happened to make everyone panic, I saw twins of big Eggbots busting through the windows on the other side of the school building. It was like the same occurrence that happened last Saturday. A déjà vu.

But these mechs weren't as big as the Egg Giant though, but even if they are different size, they were big enough to cause destruction to the people and the building itself.

"I guess that answers my question." I heard David say to Dylan, shocked at well. I rushed to them.

"Dylan, what are we going to do?" I asked my best friend, never giving a sign of panic in my tone. Dylan looked at me, and then looked at the robots, which were slowly coming right at us.

"We'll destroy them." Dylan answered simple and quickly. "It's no different that what we did back then, or at the dance. But first off…" Dylan turned to David and the rest of his friends.

"You guys have to evacuate. I thank you for not betraying me at a time like this, but I want you all safe." He told the rest of his friends.

They all looked at him confused. "But Dylan…" they started to mumble and beg at different times. The Eggbots were getting closer.

"I'll be alright! Go now before they hurt you!" Dylan yelled as he pointed towards the front doors. "I'll explain everything later!"

When the two mechs were about two and a half yards from us, it was then that Dylan's friends started running away towards the entry doors to escape. They never left their eyes off Dylan till they reached the outside. As I looked around the commons more, I saw that most of the people had evacuated. The only ones who stayed were Chelsea and Trevor. They were both looking at Dylan and I as if they should stay, or escape to the outside like everyone else. I gave them a serious stare and turned my head towards the doors. They nodded and followed my instruction.

After we checked that everybody was gone and safe, we now noticed that both of the robots stopped, and that they were now in front of us. They then shot out a beam of red from their eyes, scrolling the light down at the both of us. They were scanning.

"Scanning complete." The left robot had said in a computerized voice after the beam vanished. "Courtney and Dylan. Enemies of Dr. Eggman. Courtney holds a power source. Retrieve it. Destroy Them."

Both of the robots begun to raise their arms at us, and transform their humanized robotic hands into four dangerous guns. They glowed at the ends, getting ready to shot their blasts. Dylan already went ahead and ran away from the target area, while I just stood there, completely calm, confused of what the Eggbot said to me.

_Me…? I don't have a power source…I don't have-_

The robots fired.

"Court!" Dylan screamed at me, trying his best to get over to me in time before he and I would've gotten hit. But in a blink of an eye, a blue blur grabbed me in time before the bullets had hit me.

"Sonic." I said his name when he screeched to a stop behind the robots. He looked at me with a worried yet funny expression.

"You know better than just to stand still around those things. What's up with you?" He let me go as I looked at him. I was still confused.

"Nothing." I said. "It just…I'll tell you later. Let's go ahead and destroy these mechs." I said as I headed back to Dylan.

"Fine by me!" He laughed. Then he sped me up, and then started out by hitting the right robot with several homing attacks. When I met up with Dylan again, and quickly thought up a plan, we'd decided to give it all our all by using the powers we held. Since I didn't have a power that couldn't cause harm to another, I went ahead and tried that I could still do a homing attack. It turns out that I can!

The Eggbot was almost close to beaten. But before I did another attack to finish it, the robot grabbed me by surprise and used his other hand to grab something on my neck. Before he'd ever gotten the chance to touch me, I used my force field to protect myself, thus destroying the hand he held me on. Another déjà vu from Saturday night.

Since the robot wasn't tall enough for me to have a nasty fall; I landed short on both feet perfectly.

"Mind if I finish him?" Dylan asked me tempted with two huge fireballs in his hands. He also made a series of evil giggles.

"Go ahead." I winked.

After two hits of being slammed by fire throws, the robot lost movement and fell down to the hard ground and broke apart. A few seconds later, it was lead by another crash by the second robot. After that happened, Sonic walked to both of us, giving us a thumbs-up.

"You guys were awesome back there!" He told us with a grin. "You guys are just as good as you were back in my world!"

"Yeah! Kinda hard to believe though…" He answered Sonic, then he went over to me. "What was the mech trying to grab from you, Court?"

I looked at Dylan, then looked down at the jewel that I was still wearing around my neck. I took it off, and examine it once more. It just an ordinary jewel. It reflects light and sparkles like normal jewels do. It doesn't glow like one of the Chaos Emeralds, or the one that Eggman processed. Maybe the Eggbot made a mistake?

"Is that what the mech was trying to take from you?" Sonic walked to me and asked. I made a nod.

"Yeah, it was the same thing that left me confused. The robot said I held a power source, and then tried to take this away from me. I wore this for a few days now and there's nothing powerful about it. It's just an ordinary jewel."

Sonic looked like he didn't believe me. "Can I see it?" He handed his hand over to me. I looked at the jewel one more, placed the necklace in his palm, and he gripped it by the chain. He examined the jewel, dangling there, till he decided to touch it. When he did, he was amazed.

"What the—wow…When I touched it, all of my worries seemed to drop dead. Now, I feel calmer. A lot calmer."

"Really? So, it does it to you too?" I asked, making sure.

"Well yeah! I feel completely relaxed at the moment. You felt that way when you were wearing it?"

"Yes, but…I thought it was only my imagination."

Sonic let the jewel dangle on the chain again, sparking everywhere from the reflecting sunlight. He was more amazed than before. "Now I feel my worries again…Guys, do you know what we just found…?

Dylan and I both exchange glances, and then looked back at the smirking blue hedgehog.

"A Harmonic Iridescent."


	5. Back in Sonic's World

Chapter 5 Back in Sonic's World

"So all this time, we'd had one." Shadow spoke as he examined the jewel, dangling from my necklace chain that he held in his right hand. "Where did you get this?" He asked afterward.

After another school incident, we all teleported secretly to a place where we could rest, yet, without being bothered by teenagers, teachers, police, or any other people who would get spacious and ask many questions. In this case, we teleported to the park.

When we had gotten here, Shadow wanted to see my gemstone on my necklace, which isn't what it really seems to be. It was a Harmonic Iridescent, one of the new powerful multicolored gems found in my world. Both Shadow and I sat by each other by the nearest park bench by the playground, discussing about it.

When Shadow just asked me the question, I heard Chelsea laughing happily in the background. I turned around for a split second to see what was going on.

Of course she was on the swings, and Sonic was doing the kindness of repeating to push her on one of them. He didn't look bothered while he did so; he always has a grin on his face.

I saw Dylan chilling out on the jungle gyms, texting on his phone. He's probably replying to almost all his friends that texted of what's happening, and probably telling them that he'll be away for a little while. For him not taking any eyes off the device, he really must be receiving a lot of texts.

As I turned back to look at Shadow on the park bench, I saw Trevor walking pass us again, pacing back and forth nearby the bench while texting on his phone as well. He might be texting his girlfriend, Brittney.

"I got it as a Christmas present from my grandparents." I finally answered the black hedgehog. "The jewel was supposed to be fake, but somehow it turns out that it's one of the new gems that Eggman's collecting, a Harmonic Iridescent."

"…Opposite from our Chaos Emeralds." Shadow said softly, not leaving his eyes off the gemstone. "Instead of causing chaos and destruction, it causes peace and harmony to its surroundings, like what the Doctor said. In each of these jewels, they have power of seven Chaos Emeralds combined. If seven or more of these jewels join; imagine what will happen."

"And imagine if the seven Chaos Emeralds were included." I spoke quietly with nervousness trembling in my voice, thinking of what will happen. If Eggman gotten a hold of all these gems, then he'll mess up our worlds just like combining and mixing two different colors of Play-Doh. Everything will turn chaotic. And it will only worsen when Eggman goes into reign.

"We better get going and use this to get back to my world, before Eggman gets a head start." He handed my necklace back to me. As the jewel was dropped onto my palm of my hand, relaxation was spread across my body. Shadow got up from the bench and was about to head back towards the playground. I got up as well, and hurried to stop him by grabbing on to his arm. He glanced at me with a surprised stare.

"Don't you want to keep it?" I asked him eagerly. "I'm afraid I might lose it or let it get stolen. What about—" Shadow made a soft laugh.

"Courtney, it's yours. Obliviously you won't lose it; it'll be chained around your neck."

I sighed, and then I continued. "I'm just afraid of the same thing that happened at the dance. The ring that Sonic gave me slipped off my wrist and got taken from those people. I just…I just don't want to make the same mistake."

Shadow made a small smile. "Courtney, it's less of a mistake, more of an accident." He told me, and then his smile faded to his usual frown. "Which reminds me…if I do see those people who stolen that ring from you, they'll regret stealing it in the first place."

I looked at the black hedgehog blankly for a sec, and then looked at the ground as a short laugh escaped my mouth instead of a 'thank you'. I let go of Shadow's arm.

_Geez, you don't have to do that, Shadow…I have enough anger in me to take those people on my own…_

As Shadow and I walked into the playground, I headed to my best friend to see how he's doing. Obviously he was still texting.

"Hey Dylan." I said his name with a small smile on my face.

"Hey." He replied without looking at me. He was pressing buttons on his phone in quick speeds before it vibrated again. I continued to watch him do that repeatedly for a few minutes, that is, till he decided to turn off his phone.

"Never again should I text that many people at once." He facepalmed. Then he slid down his hand down his face tiredly.

"How many of your friends were texting you?" I questioned him.

"Too many to count." He replied after he'd made a long sigh. "Mostly I was texting my close friends, but then out of the blue, more friends texted me. I never knew that this many people will text me, worry about me, care about me…"

He got down from one of the bars that he was sitting at on the jungle gyms, and jumped on the woodchiped ground, close to me. I looked again at him with the same smile I had given him earlier.

"What can I say; you're a popular guy." I told him while I huddled my arms in my ivy green jacket as a cold February wind blew against me. I walked around pacing slowly in a small circle, kicking some woodchips on the ground, and also looking at the warm tangerine sky of a sunset.

"At times I wish I have many friends. With if I had many, I will be busy all the time…having fun…But wait…what am I saying?" I closed my eyes and shook my head slowly in disbelief. "Why would I need more, I enjoy the company that I have!"

Dylan laughed as he walked to me and placed a hand on my left shoulder. "I was about to say! Seeing you with many people, that will be surprising for a quiet girl like you."

I turned to him while my smile turned embarrassed. "Yeah. The fact of crowds is what changed my mind."

"Everyone, gather up!" I heard Shadow's yell at the middle of the playground. When we looked over, we saw everyone stopping of what they were doing, and walked over to the middle of the wide space of the play area. While walking over, I heard Chelsea whining that she didn't want to stop swinging. I made a soft giggle.

"So? What's the plan, Shads?" Sonic asked while he came and stood by me in the circle of friends. Shadow looked at him without an angry face, for once.

"All of us are going to teleport to Green Hill Zone, and see of what we'll accomplish from there. And while being in that location, we might have to go to your fox friend for a bit of technology. Obviously, we always need special equipment." The black hedgehog explained.

All of us made a nod except for Chelsea, who just randomly looked at Shadow confused. I looked at the orange sky again and thought of the last time being in Sonic's world, a wondrous, beautiful, utopian place that you can roam about and travel everywhere in. I wonder if I will get to see Bloom City again, or ever get the chance to have fun in Casino Park, or any other places. In other words, I was excited to go back. And I bet Dylan was too, for him to talk about it to me over and over after our first adventure.

"What's Green Hill Zone?" I then heard Chelsea ask everyone.

"You'll see." Sonic answered shortly to Chelsea's question with a grin plastered on his face. Then both hedgehogs looked over to me, scary that they were both smiling.

"It's time." Shadow made a nod.

I didn't know how or what to make a teleporting portal, but if Eggman did it without any trouble, so can I. I placed both of my hands on the back of my neck and unchained my necklace, and then I walked towards the center while Shadow took a few steps back so I could have room. I raised the jewel high in the air, and thought about the place that Sonic had his first adventure. About a few seconds, multicolor sparks appeared where the Iridescent was. While it continued to produce more, I also took a few steps back.

A few more sparks later, a bright multicolor portal appeared right before our eyes, a circler vortex ready to consume us and let us enter the utopian world of Sonic's.

When my excitement took over me, my body now had a mind of its own and started walking back towards the portal. Nobody nor did I stop myself.

As I finally touched and went into the bright colorful entrance, I closed my eyes so that I will not to be blind from all the flashy colors that teleported me. But as I opened my eyes again, a bunch of green trees and plants surrounded me. I then noticed that I was in same forest that I was in twice before, the forest that leads into the Green Hill Zone. I inhaled a bunch of air around me, and slowly exhaled by leaving a big grin on my face.

_I'm back!_

Behind me I heard my friends entering out of the portal. When I turned and saw Dylan entering out, he was back into his orange hedgehog form, like I remembered when he was here.

I instantly gasped and looked down at my now smaller body, seeing that my shoes, jeans, shirt, and jacket were now shrunk. And my hands were gloved now. Our bodies are used to this world now, and because of that, we don't have to adapt to it again. But that's not a problem. I kind of missed being a hedgehog.

"Court!" Dylan pointed at me, as if I didn't know that I was back being a hedgehog. I did the same with him.

When Chelsea and Trevor gotten here, it made me feel a little bit awkward. They were still human and they were bigger than us. I wonder if Sonic felt the same way whenever he met humans. But besides that, what will happen after three days of them being here? Hopefully they'll change like we did.

"Huh? Where are Courtney and Dylan?" Chelsea asked out loud. Trevor instantly started to look around the forest, thinking that we teleported someplace else.

Me and Dylan both laughed and waved at them till they finally figured it out.

"Court? Dylan…? Oh my gosh!" Was Chelsea's response. She held both hands to her mouth and looked at us wide-eyed. Trevor just stood and looked at us with a shocked face, kind of similar to Chelsea's.

And what happened next…well…Chelsea ran up and hugged me, telling me how cute I looked. And Trevor immediately came to Dylan and told him how cool he looked and asked if he would get to change like that too. After Chelsea finally released me from her hug, I walked to Trevor, crossed my arms, and tapped my right foot impatiently on the grass.

"What?" He looked at me uncertain. "Did I do something wrong? By the way you look pretty cute this way."

I ignored his last comment. "You said this world didn't exist, also weeks before, you said you didn't believe that we were hedgehogs."

"So what are you asking?" He gave me smile, a certain smile of his which scares me half the time.

"An apology." I answered simple and quickly.

"Will a hug work? A looong hug?"

My right eye twitched a little, and made two steps back. Big steps. "Know what? Never mind."

Before Trevor ever gotten the chance to get a hold of me, I escaped to where Sonic was at. He was a little far, but I could see him. He was in the exact spot they we both overlooked the entire zone of Green Hill Zone; also this was the exact spot of which we both fled downhill and took me through the whole course.

"Hey Sonic." I made a little wave as I walked to his side. He looked at me with his usual grin of his, and then looked back at the green hilly view ahead of him.

"Remember what happened here?" He asked me, and then continued. "We both ran downhill together and made you experience Green Hill Zone. Haha! I remember you we're so scared!"

I turned embarrassed once more. "W-Well, I bet you were scared on your first time!" I spat out as I pointed at him, but he snickered.

"For the first time I went down there, I was only a little guy. But I do admit I was scared, but as I went through it, there wasn't anything to be scared about. It turned out to be thrilling and fun! Honestly…I'm kinda happy Egghead showed up…Without him making a troublesome appearance, I wouldn't be going on these fun journeys and adventures! Plus saving everybody at the end makes it all worth while."

Slowly my anger disappeared as a smile formed on my face again, after hearing what he had said. How can you stay mad at Sonic?

"I'm happy that you enjoy your life so much."

Sonic chuckled and turned to look at me again, still grinning. "You have to live your life to the fullest. You can't just stand there and be afraid while everything good passes you by. You'll miss out."

I closed my eyes as a nice cool spring-like breeze passed by in this area, blowing against the trees as well Sonic and I. While enjoying it, I thought about what Sonic said. He had a point. Almost half of my life, I just stood there afraid what will happen while most good things were just passing by. I would've met new people and done many things. But the only thing that was stopping me from doing such was my shyness. I need to learn how to break it one way or another…

As soon as the breeze stopped I opened my eyes, and saw Sonic still looking at me. I would've thought that he'll be enjoying that nice cool air too. But then I thought, I think he gets lots of air already, with him running as fast as he does. After all, he is the wind.

"Wanna go down there together like last time?" He smirked this time, as held out a hand to me. "Unless you're scared again?" He then joked around.

I made a short laugh and took his hand. Unknowingly, he quickly grabbed hold of my form and was beginning to walk fast, getting close to the steepness of the grassy hill.

"You know I'm not human anymore, I can just run beside you." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Heh heh, then it wouldn't be much of a ride! Remember, faster than the speed of sound?"

Before I had the chance to reply, we were flying down the hill already. As we traveled down, I don't remember us going _this_ fast. Ha. Nice try for trying to scare me, Sonic, even though I held on for my dear life.

As the rollercoaster of a hill ended, we didn't stop and went through the course with the same exact speed that Sonic was using down the hill. When obstacles appeared, he quickly dodged whenever he was close to ramming into them.

"Nice try." I stuck out my tongue at him.

"But look, the loop!" He nodded at the big corkscrewed landmark ahead of us. As he sped up and ran up around it, I cheered all the way through. When that was done, Sonic slowed to a stop and let me go.

"I say, I'm impressed!" He gave me a thumbs up with an included proud smile. "You have changed since the last adventure. I think you're ready!"

I made a nod as I smiled along too. "Always have been."

In the distance, I heard an angry yell and other chattering nearby where the forest and the hill was. We looked back and saw that our group far away walking towards us; I also saw a flash of green light in the middle of the group.

"Sonic, I think Shadow's after you…" I warned, but there was no answer. Looking back, I saw Sonic about a mile away, dashing away from trouble. Later, the green light appeared once more, and Shadow was on the move to catch the blue blur. I laughed the sight.

"Things never change."

Back in front, I saw that Chelsea and Trevor had stopped, and saw them both looking and cheering at Dylan showing off of what he could do in his hedgehog form. I laughed again.

I had a feeling this adventure will be greater than the last.


	6. Around the World

Chapter 6 Around the World

It was most recently till we found Tails (or more likely; when Tails found us). He appeared in the sky after abruptly hearing shouts from Sonic, who was being chased by an angry Shadow around the whole Green Hill area. I thought it was quite funny, since the last time Tails first found us was the time Amy was in rage.

When he appeared into view, he immediately propelled down to the ground and stopped the two hedgehogs from running, and surprisingly calming Shadow back to the way he usually was. Shadow grunted.

"If only he could stay in one place instead of running around everywhere." The black hedgehog was beginning to fuse with anger again. "He needs to learn that every place he goes to, you can't just go running off, especially when we're on a mission."

Sonic snickered, like what he mostly does towards Shadow. "Again with the seriousness, come on Shads, you know this is where my first adventure began! It's hard to resist running through it!"

Shadow closed his eyes as well as crossing his arms, seeming to ignore whatever the blue blur had spoke out of his mouth. His lids opened again, but instead of looking at Sonic, his ruby orbs turned to me.

"Yet again, you took her along." He continued dimly.

"What's wrong with that?" Sonic spoke offended with his eyes widened. "She's one of my great pals! Plus, I haven't seen her in forever. We need a little catching up to do." He turned to me in smile when he said his last group of words. Shadow grunted again.

"Still, what matters is—"

"Court!" Tails finally noticed me, and interrupted by saying my name as happy it could get. With his two tails, he swiftly flew across the two hedgehogs, to me, and given me a long embrace. As he let go, a grin was placed upon his face.

"As Sonic would say: long time no see!" The grin never left his face. "I always knew you'll be back, even when Sonic told me that he's heading to your world, I knew that you'll be here again!"

"Wow." I quietly laughed at the twin-tailed fox, cheerful by me appearing back into his wondrous fantasy world. Honestly, I didn't think that I'll be missed by much by Tails, or the other characters that I met here (guess I have to wait and find out). By looking at Tails' face, it was hard to resist grinning back at him. I may not have mentioned it earlier, but I miss the little kitsune. Well…not little anymore, he did say he was eleven…

"I always knew too." I replied to Tails' earlier response. "Something told me that _I will _see you guys again." I told him as the two hedgehogs overheard close by. "As much as I doubted to believe, I'm quite surprised that it was true. I'm happy that I'm back." My grinning never faded.

"Did Dylan come along too?" Tails had asked me while his two tails danced around behind him excitedly. Before I could answer the good news, I heard a familiar voice talking close in the background. When I looked over to the source of the voice, I saw Dylan—not that far away—walking backwards towards us. Apparently, he was still showing off his moves/powers to Chelsea and Trevor, who were walking normally with shocking looks on their faces.

"Do the fire again Dylan!" Trevor clasped both hands to the bottom of his chin, hopping up and down from his excitement while he walked. When they had gotten closer, I saw Dylan making a smirk at him. It was obviously a yes. Even though I said this once before, but Dylan was exactly like Sonic in some ways. He's funny, kind, sincere, and so on. It was no doubt Dylan was popular. With those kinds of characteristics, no wonder almost everyone at our school wants to be his friend.

"Alright! Here it—"

"Dylan!" Tails ran and hugged my best friend from behind, before he got the chance of putting blazes into his fingertips. Dylan flinched from the sudden glomp, but as he turned and saw Tails, he immediately hugged back.

"Tails!" The orange hedgehog outburst the orange kitsune's name during the embrace, and then let him go. "How are you?"

"Great! After seeing you and Court back!" Tails announced happily, and then opened his mouth to say something else. But it closed suddenly as he saw our two other friends behind Dylan. Without a second thought, he walked to them.

"Hello! Who are you guys?" Tails kindly greeted and asked them, as he made a little wave. When Trevor looked below at Tails and was about to speak, Chelsea quickly jumped on the fox whenever she first laid eyes on him.

"Oh my goodness! He's soo adorable!" Chelsea squealed as she death-hugged Tails. While I watched her, she looked like she was squeezing him more tightly then whenever she had me, maybe even tighter than Amy's hugs. I could tell because Tails' couldn't breathe whenever Chel's laid hands on him.

"Chelsea!" Dylan angrily yelled my friend's name, then rushed to her and got the fox free from her long dangerous hug. First thing Tails did whenever he got out was gasp for oxygen.

"What's wrong? I was only hugging him!" Chelsea yelled at Dylan, already making the third fight of the day.

"To me, it looked like you were about to end his life!" The orange hedgehog yelled back while he pointed at the gasping Tails, defending him and himself.

"Don't blame me! He was too cute and adorable for not being hugged!" She continued. "Just look at him!"

Dylan seemed to ignore Chelsea's command, only to continue his usual glare to her whenever they got into argument. It was a funny sight to see, them fighting. But as if any good friend would want, is to see their other friends get along.

"Well next time, don't put him in a—"

"Stop!" Tails yelled out when he finally gotten back to his normal state. He was standing up tall with both of gloved hands gripped by his sides with a mean look on his face. It was the first time hearing him that loud. After what I saw earlier, I think Tails has gone a long way from being what he used to. For him to stop fights, and going to Eggman's abandoned base alone, he really has grown up from what I saw in the early Sonic games. Tails' courage and bravery had gotten stronger.

"But, but, but…" Chelsea kept repeating the same word after the kitsune's outburst, and kept pointing at Dylan and Tails constantly. But before Chel's switched on to another word to continue, Sonic walked into the group by placing a hand on one of Tails' shoulders. Tails then looked up at him, and immediately paid attention to his best friend.

"Hey Tails, mind taking us to your workshop? We've need some technology for our new adventure." Sonic asked him kindly. In instant, Tails closed his eyes and formed a cheerful smile to his favor, with all his early anger vanished.

"Certainly Sonic!"

And before you know it, we were halfway there.

* * *

A couple of zones later, we all managed to get to Tails' workshop. But as I was traveling through the zones, I wondered why Shadow didn't just go ahead and teleported us there. It might have been the easiest thing to do.

But then I remembered; Shadow didn't teleport us to some places during the last adventure. I did hear him say that he wanted to do some things the old fashioned way. When I thought about it, if we teleported to every place we needed to go to, then we'll be missing out on these breathtaking zones that we have to go pass.

That would be a waste of an adventure, especially in Sonic's world. I need to take in everything here while I can.

Who knows when I'll be back…?

As we finally gotten to the workshop, it was exactly the same when I last saw it. It was in the Mystic Ruins, a big metallic colored base right on one of the shortest cliffs in the area. Tails walked up by the side of the garage of the building, and punched in the password on a calculator-like device aside it. There, it unlocked all doors from the shop and slowly opened the huge garage door.

"Welcome and welcome back to my workshop everybody!" Tails childishly said toward us as he happily went inside his workplace, wanting us to follow his lead.

Everybody instantly rushed in—especially Chelsea and Trevor—and got a look of everything that was inside. It wasn't big of news to Sonic, Shadow, Dylan, and I, since the same machines that were incomplete and broken were still in the same places. But I couldn't help but look at the plane that took us places where the Chaos Emeralds were hidden. The Tornado III.

Unlike the other machines and devices in here, it was the only one that seemed very clean, and very well taken care of. I guess Tails' cherishes this plane a lot.

"Come here guys!" The two-tailed fox waved to us till we got his attention, and then all of us huddled over.

"I wanted to see more stuff!" Chelsea complained as she looked back at the many types of machinery in the workshop. Tails made a cutesy laugh.

"You will Chelsea. It will only take a minute." He told her, as he went over to his scanner-like machine. Then he looked over back at us.

"Chaos Emerald?" He asked with blinking eyes. Without saying a word, Shadow reached for something behind his back, and revealed his green luminous Chaos Emerald to him. He handed it over.

"Careful with it." Shadow said unfaithfully to the kitsune. When the Emerald was placed into his palms, Tails gave him a half-smile. "It not like I'm going to steal it."

The kitsune walked shortly back to his scanner machine, and then pressed a button from its left side. A few seconds later, came out a unique-like container. Tails then gently placed the mystical gem inside of it, then pressed the same button to close the container back in. The scanning started automatically.

Once that was processing, Tails swiftly flew left to his computer that was nearby, and pressed many keys upon his keyboard while his eyes glued to the monitor. When we saw and heard that the scanning was finished, the fox quickly typed more on the keyboard, and ended it by pressing the 'enter' key with his right index finger. Once that happened, a flashing light occurred from a box-like device by the other side of the computer. Tails opened it.

"Taa-dahh!" The fox cheered as he grabbed something from inside of the machine, and revealed a very technical watch. It almost looks similar to the watch Tails had given me and the others on the last adventure, except that there was now a screen on it. The fox showed it to everyone.

"This is my brand-new version of my Emerald Tracker Watch!" Tails announced. "For those who haven't used or seen this before, it helps you by detecting any Chaos Emeralds that may be close to range."

"I want one!" Trevor shouted out as he stared at the watch Tails' held with interest. I rolled my eyes at him.

Tails laughed. "You'll be getting one, so don't worry." He said reassuringly before he continued. "Now, I made a few adjustments on the Emerald Tracker Watch. As you can see, I added a screen so you can see where the Emerald's located without depending on the beeping. And what's even better, I added a feature that you can see where _all_ the Emeralds all located!"

"Sweet!" Sonic said happily by making a thumbs-up to his best friend, along with most of us complimenting on Tails on how he worked so hard to get this done. It was a great improvement from him.

Shadow looked at Tails seriously as the fox had given the watches to everybody, and after giving him back his green Emerald. "You won't mind doing us another favor will you?" He asked deeply.

"Umm…sure! What you do want?" Tails asked with both of his tails behind him flipping around curiously.

"We have other powerful gems to search for in the other world." Shadow tilted his head to me for a sec, telling Tails that it was my world that he was mentioning. "And it would truly help if you can make another set of watches to tell their location."

The kitsune placed his right fist in front of his mouth, and thought for awhile. Till five minutes have passed, he looked back at Shadow as he finally thought of a solution. "Well I could make another adjustment to the watches, but to do that I need the gem that you guys are looking for."

Popping my head up after hearing the last words Tails said, I quickly placed my hands behind my neck and un-chained my necklace with the Harmonic Iridescent. After that, I walked and showed it to Tails. He looked at the necklace confused for a second, till he realized that the gem hanging down from the chain was the gem that he needed. He grabbed it by the chain, and perked up at me.

"Thanks Court!" He said with another cheerful smile.

After retrieving it, he then asked for a recall for all the watches he'd given away. Once he got them all, he placed them back into the same device that the watches were in before, and then walked to the scanner machine, and placed the Harmonic Iridescent in there this time. But when Tails was in the middle of doing his routine from before, the scanner begun to spark, and before you know it, it was engulfed in flames and smoke.

"Oh no!" Tails panicked while he rashly tried to find a fire extinguisher somewhere by his computer desk. But Dylan hurriedly rushed in and made the flames disappear with his powers. The fox sighed in relief.

"Thanks Dylan." He told him with a relieved smile, but it lowered whenever he reached the broken scanner.

"No problem." Dylan answered back as he walked with him, Sonic came too.

"What could've happened to cause that?" Sonic asked Tails while he was tugging at the container slot, to get it open. At his final tug, it finally flung out, and Tails grabbed my necklace which was inside of it. But once he touched the surface of the jewel, he gasped in wonder.

"Whoa…why do I suddenly feel calmer? Is it…this gem?" He questioned himself while looking at the Harmonic Iridescent. He tested it as he let go and let it dangle by the chain, and then touched it again.

"It is the gem!" The kitsune gasped in surprise. "I can feel its power coursing through my body as I touch it…Courtney? Where did you get this?"

I made a little sigh as I begun to explain everything I knew about the Harmonic Iridescent and whatnot. After I mostly covered everything, Tails now understood why his scanner malfunctioned. It was the cause of the gem's power whenever the machine was scanning it. The scanner must have triggered something in order for gem to release its full potential.

"Well, at least the watches are ok." Tails said with a little happiness as he begun passing out the watches again. Sonic looked at him with a confusing look.

"So, what are we going to do without the H.I. detecting adjustment?" The blue blur asked. The fox thought for minutes again.

"Hmmm…Well, I don't think any of my other equipment can help with that problem. But I do know one way…" Tails started out saying by looking at my necklace that I placed back on, and then continued. "…and that is to ask someone who pretty much knows everything about jewels. That's my only option."

Sonic looked at Tails wide-eyed during the whole explanation. But then they narrowed mischievously as he started to poke Shadow in the upper arm with his elbow.

"Hey, maybe you should ask your girlfriend to help us out? She _is_ a jewel thief…" Sonic smiled as he whispered to the dark hedgehog. But it only left him with being punched in the head.

"Do I have to remind you…Every. Single. Time?" Shadow paused at the three last words seriously and furiously. "I repeat, and I will repeat…SHE'S NOT!"

"To which part?" Sonic snickered as he got back on his feet, now rubbing the bump Shadow had placed on his head.

"Don't start again!" Shadow growled deep in his throat.

Thus another fight started…

But in the end, we all managed to agree on going to Angel Island to see Knuckles. It turns out that Rouge was on a mission for G.U.N. He was our next choice, next to her. Other than him being a guardian to the Master Emerald, he was also a treasure hunter believe it or not. And by 'treasure hunter'; it meant searching for the shattered pieces of the Master Emerald, and retrieving them. With that, I'm pretty sure he has some experience searching for jewels.

After we've agreed, we said our thanks and goodbyes to the helpful Tails, and we were now on our way to the island in the heavens. But during our walk there, Dylan and I decided to check out our new watches.

"Which button is the one that turns on the screen?" I asked him confusingly while looking at the many black buttons on my watch.

"I think it's the one that closest to the screen, cause I just turned mine on." He said as he went over to me, and pressed the button he was mentioning on the watch. The screen lit up.

"Thanks!"

"No problem!"

As we both looked at our watches speechlessly as we walked, waiting for screen to load for a few seconds. Till now, something popped on and revealed a map of the area we were now passing through.

"Whoa neat!" Dylan said amazed as he looked at the map on the watch. "I wonder if we can zoom out?"

He went ahead and pressed the same button again. It turns out that it did zoom out of the area, and into the continent we're now on. We both looked at the continent on our watches surprisingly; it looked like it was one of the continents from the world in Sonic Unleashed, the one that was left without a city/town/village. I kind of figured it was the one that Sonic and the others lived in.

After seeing that, we decided to zoom out once more, and then the continent was out of view and into the world map. It so turns out that it was the same world off of Sonic Unleashed. While we continued looking, I couldn't help but spot red dots blinking in each continent. Do those dots mean the cities? They look like they were in the same location where the cities and towns were in the game.

"Dylan…? What do those red dots mean?" I asked him once more as I looked over to him. He looked like that he was about to ask the same thing.

"I think that they're either cities or the Chaos Emeralds…wait…" Dylan looked into his watch more closely, and found out there were white dots nearby the blinking red ones. It appears that the white dots are the locations of the cities.

"So that means…" Dylan started as he slowly looked over to me, and both exchanged the same shocking glance.

Surprising as it sounds, but each of the seven Chaos Emeralds were all located in seven continents and countries of the whole world. How did they get there? Who knows? But we did know that we all have to go to each continent to retrieve them.

So, it's like Sonic Unleashed over again. The only things different is the plot, the world not broken, no Werehogs, no Gaias, and that me and my closest friends are included. Although it would be awesome if there was Werehogs and Gaias, but I'm positive that the adventure would be great nonetheless.

I was excited.


	7. Little Meetings

Chapter 7 Little Meetings

All six of us stared blankly at the big island floating still out into the sea in the distance, which was faintly covered by clouds and fog. Angel Island. But as we stared, we still have a problem to solve. And the problem was how to get across that wide space of water, and onto the floating piece of land. Sonic walked to the edge of the cliff with fright showing in his peridot eyes, as he saw the ocean violently repeating to crash onto the long rocky cliff. He quickly took a few steps back.

"Heh heh…" The blue hedgehog laughed nervously for the time being till a smirk rose from his lips and quickly looked at Shadow, who was in the back of the group in his usual position of his: crossed arms with a frown upon his face.

In about a second, he was next to him. "Hey Shads! Mind taking us up there while using Chaos Control?" asked Sonic as he now wrapped an arm around Shadow, being cool. The black hedgehog growled fiercely and pulled away from his friendly touch.

"No." was Shadow's answer as he looked at Sonic angry with his ruby eyes. I then turned to the black hedgehog, which I thought that he was going to use that technique to get to the island. I stared blankly at my favorite character.

"Shadow? Then how—"

"Meaning Sonic, the rest of you are coming with me." Shadow told me and the others before I had the chance to finish. Sonic now looked at the black hedgehog shocked and offended. "What? Why are you—"

"Must I remind you of all the little jokes that you've been snickering to me past this adventure?" Shadow questioned the quick hedgehog. There was silence for a moment.

Sonic closed his eyes shut, shook his head twice, and opened his eyes again with pure innocence. "C'mon Shadow! I was just—" He tried to defend, but the black hedgehog seemed to ignore and interrupt once more.

"Well here's a joke from me." Shadow said backing up from him, to me and the rest of my friends. For the first time in awhile, Shadow had a playful smirk on his face. The other times I saw was when he was about to teleport me to Eggman and time when he appeared a couple days ago.

"Let's see how you can get the island while going through your weakness?" Shadow spoke while I saw him revealing the green Chaos Emerald from behind, not wanting Sonic to see what he's up to. "Chaos Control!"

In a bright green flash, we were gone. All except for Sonic, who just stared blankly in the spot where we once stood. He started to chuckle.

"Very funny Shadow!" He yelled to the far island while walking towards the edge of the cliff a second time. The sounds of waves startled him again.

"Very funny…"

* * *

As the bright flash vanished, we were now located into another green-covered jungle close to the edge of another cliff. I was about to ask Shadow if we really went anywhere, till I walked close to the cliff and saw that we were a several feet high in the air, and that the land didn't met with the ocean at all.

"Whoa!" yelled Dylan who then walked next to me, responding to how high and how far we were from where we came. Far into the distance, we saw a small speck of blue standing on the same cliff that we were just standing on. Seeing the little hedgehog jump and crying words that I didn't seem to hear out. I turned to Shadow with a worried stare.

"I don't think that Sonic is going to make it here by himself…" I told him softly. As of his reply, he turned his head away and made a grunt.

"Serves him right from all the things he said." He spoke with anger written all over his tone.

I looked towards the faraway cliff again, and then made a little peek at Shadow. "Even so, you must forgive…Remember what Maria promised?"

To that response, he blinked countless for the time being, unloosing his anger, and then looked over to me in wonder. It was the same exact expression when I first told him about her promise. When his eyes had filled enough with my image, he took out his green Chaos Emerald and disappeared from sight. I smiled.

Till he came back with the blue blur, all of us began to journey into the jungle. Passing by many green trees and plants, it was hard trying to pass though and easy to get lost in here. But since many of us are traveling together, it makes it a piece of cake.

I blew a sigh of relief when I finally stepped on the first blades of grass onto the wide grassy plain, which was cluttered with broken stone and ruins.

As we walked more closely to the center, more ruins showed. As we finally got there, we saw a huge Mayan-like altar, atop with a huge luminous green emerald, and a red echidna resting beside it. We can tell because we heard his loud snores from the bottom of the shrine.

Dylan and I tried our best to hide our giggles, while Sonic quickly told us to be quiet while he was planning to do something hilarious. Shadow rolled his eyes.

But during the blue hedgehog's first steps onto the shrine, Chelsea—who didn't pay attention a couple seconds ago—then bursted: "Omigosh! It's Knuckles!"

In about a minute or so, the red echidna jumped from his resting place on the altar, and jumped in front of Sonic on the first few steps. They were face-to-face.

The blue hedgehog quickly made a smile and waved to his longtime friend/rival. "Hello Knucks! Long time no see!"

Knuckles made a short growl, but afterwards he stared at him with a questionable look. "What do you want Sonic?" He asked in a low tone.

"My friends and I need your help." Sonic then told him calmly. At the word 'friends', Knuckles turned his attention to the rest of us down below. He didn't care much for Shadow, but his violet eyes widened at Dylan, Chelsea, Trevor and I.

He jumped from the remaining stairs to me and Dylan, giving me a jolt. But I was grinning happily by seeing his appearance again. Me and Dylan both were.

"You guys are back? But how?" He asked us. And his eyes never seemed to lose its surprise.

"Eggman is up to no good again." Dylan started to explain. "And by 'no good', it means that he's still trying to rule both our worlds."

I nodded in agree. "Yeah, and that's how we're back. And we need your help by telling us on how to locate gems."

Knuckles then blinked at us confusingly. "Gems? Why do you guys need help with that? The only gems around here are the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds. Surely Tails has technology to help you on that…if they're lost that is."

Shadow continuously grunted again, and walked towards Knuckles. "That's not what they mean." He said as he started explaining the whole jewel crisis back in my world. Knuckles' eyes widened again and then turned to us with a friendly smile.

"Sure! I can help you on that!" He told us gladly. "I'll be happy to share my treasure hunting secrets to anyone, as long nobody uses it for evil purposes. Somebody like—"

"Me." A recognizable female voice finished. As all of us looked up ahead to the source of the voice, it turned out to be no other than Rouge the Bat, who was sitting on top of the Master Emerald with one of her legs crossed. Once finally Knuckles glanced at her, his face and attitude was nothing but temper.

"Hey you! Get off of there!" He pointed his right glove at her, and started to dash up the shrine stairs. Till he got up onto the altar, all what he did was try to jump onto the Master Emerald to get her off. But since the emerald was too big, and that it was hard trying to grab onto the edges, he didn't accomplish. Even after the early jumps he did earlier, I would've figured that he could've got up there.

"Get off you thief!" The red echidna again yelled angrily at her. But the white bat just shook her head at him in disappointment. "Is that any way to treat a lady?"

Knuckles gripped his fists, and did nothing but give her a glare. "No! And you're no lady!" He answered loudly that everyone could hear.

And in a blink of an eye, I saw the tip of Rouge's boot ram on the side of Knuckle's head. She landed by the side of him gracefully after he took a harsh fall.

"You really need to learn manners…" She placed her left arm on her hip and looked at the injured Knuckles; wincing while touching her hit on his now sore head.

"Look who's talking…" He grumbled quietly.

As me, Dylan, Sonic, and the rest of us rushed onto the altar; Rouge greeted us with a little smug on her face. "Well will you look at that…you and your friend are back, along with other newcomers." She spoke to me and Dylan first before she led her attention to the blue and black hedgehogs.

"And hello Sonic…nice to see you again. Same to you, teammate." The white bat winked at the dark hero. Shadow gave her a smile that lasted about a second.

"So why are you guys hanging around Knucklehead?" She gave the echidna a soft push after he got up from the stone floor. He continued to rub his bump.

"They were asking for advice…" He lowered his eyes at her. Rouge looked at him and laughed. "Ha! What can they possibly learn from you?"

"Something that I'm quite more experienced at then you!" Knuckles smirked.

"What's that?"

"Treasure hunting."

And after saying those two words, it all ended downhill from there. Before the fight had gotten too violent, Sonic got in and spread them apart and tried to calm them down. Shockingly it worked.

"Alright…" Rouge started while brushing herself off. "Before the echidna begins with his so-called 'advice', let me tell you something before I leave. I keep forgetting that I have a mission to do." She sighed miserably after.

"About time." Knuckles had crossed his arms and looked away at Rouge, still a little tempered. She made a soft giggle at him.

"You can only find special gems located in the most populated places, like cities. But be warned though, some may be guarded." She pointed her right index finger up while giving the last tip before she finished.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. She nodded truthfully, then went to grab something behind her and showed proof. In her hand were many different kinds of gems and jewelry.

"I got these in Station Square, Soleanna, and other cities." She explained to us while we kept our eyes glued to the pretty and shiny treasures. Not for long, she put them away.

"Thanks for sharing that with us." Trevor said to the bat.

"No problem!"

Knuckles grunted whenever Rouge started to walk to him next, his back turned away from her. Sonic walked by closely; in case something was bound to happen again.

"Well, see you around Knucklehead…hopefully you'll learn some manners before I return."

Knuckles shifted swiftly to the bat with his face written in anger once more. "Stop saying that! It should be you who need manners! Who just comes here and just—"

Before Knuckles could finish his sentence, Rouge just went ahead and kissed him on the head where she'd hit him. Afterwards, he stood there stunned with his face flushed with red, not moving a single muscle. Rouge made a small giggle and took it to the skies, waved us goodbye, and flew away. Even after that, Knuckles still didn't move. Sonic began to laugh hard.

"That's totally the highlight of my day! No doubt! Haha! Knuckles your face is priceless!"

While Knuckles was busy chasing Sonic around the shrine, angry again, someone poked my left shoulder constantly. I turned around to see Dylan very excited, prompted to do something.

"Hey! Let's go exploring in the forest!" He said with a contagious smile on his face, now pointing to the forest we've been through earlier. When I looked around to check everyone; I saw that Knuckles and Sonic was still chasing each other, and that Chelsea and Trevor were enjoying the show. Only Shadow seemed to care less. They wouldn't mind if we disappeared for a few minutes, or hours? But just in case, I told Shadow what we'll be doing.

At that moment we both ran into the forest as excited as we were hours before, when we've entered this wondrous world again. In there, we looked at many colorful plants, flowers, and even some waterfalls included. But when the sun started to set, it was when that the both of us gotten lost.

"Court Court!" I heard Dylan yell my nickname as we tried to find ourselves in the thick green woods for a few minutes. I tripped over a few twigs and vines while trying to locate his voice.

"Court Court! Are we lost?" He spoke again, this time in a funny tone. I laughed.

"No! Just keep talking!" I said as loud as I ever heard myself in awhile. Dylan laughed this time.

"Okay Court Court!"

As I slowly continued to follow the source of the voice, step by step, suddenly I felt someone or something grab a hold to my left shoe on the forest floor. I stood there frozen for a few seconds, thinking that a huge spider or a big bug grabbed onto it. When I finally had the courage to look down, it turned out to be the exact opposite.

It was a black Chao, a cute and little creature that many can be found in Sonic's world. It looked at me with a frightened look on its face. What was it doing here?

"Aww." I cooed as I bent down and picked it up as it loosed its grip from my shoe. Then I held it in my arms then started to cradle it, like a baby. "No need to be scared." I said to the Chao vey soft and gentle. "Were you lost too?"

In reply, the Chao slowly nodded with eyes shut. But when it looked at me, its face quickly perked with happiness and then started to hug me. It gave me out a surprise, but it made me smile. But after playing with it a while longer, I realized that Dylan had stopped yelling. I covered the Chao's ears on both sides of the head (if that's where they were), and cried out to Dylan. He replied quickly back, this time excited again.

"Court Court! You gotta come over here quick!" was all he said. I lowered my eyes, and then cried out to him that he still needed to talk in order to find him. He did so.

I un-covered the Chao's ears and then started to dash towards the voice the second time, but this time I found him. But when I looked at my best friend, he was in the same position as I was, shockingly. He was holding a Chao too, but this one was red.

I laughed at the sight. "Really?"

He nodded fast with a grin. "Yeah!" And then he looked at me. "Oh! You have one too!" He outbursted.

I laughed again. "Where did you find yours?" I asked curiously, wondering if we found our Chaos the exact same way too.

"Well," Dylan started. "I saw a red blobby thing on the ground while I was trying to find you. When I when up to get a closer look, it turned out to be a Chao! And oh gosh! I can't believe I found one! I've been wanting to have one during our last adventure!" He ended his explanation cheerfully. "Where did _you_ find yours?"

I turned my attention to my Chao for a second, seeing it was still in its happy mood. It was. Then I explained. "It happened to hug my shoe whenever I walking." I made a little smile. Dylan chuckled.

"That's a funny way to find one." His laughter disintegrated and became wondrous. "I wonder why there were here. There isn't any Chao Gardens around in Angel Island, is there?"

"Not that I know of." I answered short.

"Oh neow!" Dylan made another outburst, making everything funny again. "But that's okay, who needs Chao Gardens while I can carry this little guy throughout the journey?"

The vision of robots and danger popped in my head. "But what if they get hurt?"

"Nah, they'll be fine—Oh gosh! We need to name our Chaos!" He quickly switched one subject to another. It left me bringing laughter again and another smile. But before we could name our Chaos though, it was getting darker with every minute passing while we conversed. So, we headed back towards the middle of the island again, careful not to lose each other. But as we traveled through, we never stopped talking, and yet never stop looking at the adorable Chaos we found.

As for the names of our Chaos, Dylan decided to name his Muffins. It was the first name that popped into his mind, and it was funny how his Chao agreed with it completely. It was waving his arms while happily chanting: "Chao Chao!" Dylan never stopped laughing at that. As for mine, I decided to name it Sakura. It was a Japanese word meaning 'cherry blossom', my favorite flower. It seemed to agree with it too, I saw it making a cute little smile.

Few minutes later, we've gotten back to the shine with Sonic and the rest waiting for us. But when we returned however, it was already night, and the black sky was lit up with millions of stars. A sign that it was the time to rest. So after we all lay on the fields of grass and got comfortable, sleep completely took place.


	8. Back to Reality

Chapter 8 Back to Reality

"Mhmm…" I stirred in my sleep. For the last five minutes or so, sunbeams were dancing on my face as soon the sun started to arise again. Even though there are plenty of tall and leafy trees to break out the sunlight, the rays managed a way to get through.

I deepened the shut my eyes to try to block the brightness out, but it left me getting more irritated so I turned around and lay on my stomach. Then, I laid my head down on the soft patches of grass while enjoying the cool crisp morning wind occurring constantly. Rest was slowly about to overcome me once more.

"Chao Chao!" a cute little voice cried, and it led to soft pokes on my left shoulder. I finally let my eyes open, and saw Sakura sitting close and staring at me with a playful look. She poked me again.

I blinked a few times more to adjust to my sight, and to wake me up. Then I finally sat up and gotten a hold of Sakura, and started to play with her for the time being. During that, I noticed that everybody else was still sleeping. Even the blue blur himself, who would get up to the crack of dawn to run. I softly giggled. This is a great accomplishment that I awoke first.

I was thinking about waking everyone up, but I didn't want to bother them. Then the thought of going back appeared in my mind. Now I was certain not to wake them. Don't get me wrong, I was excited about visiting the biggest cities in the world, but the fact of leaving this world that longed to go back to for such a long time, wanted me to stay put. Sitting there silently with Sakura for a few minutes, I tried to figure out a plan.

As quietly as possible I stood up and picked up Sakura—while telling her as silent as possible to not to make a peep while I carried her—and slowly walked pass my sleeping friends and into the forest for a third time. As we went into the forest however, the crunching of leftover autumn leaves sounded whenever I took a step. Automatically looking back, nobody made movement or reacted whenever that occurred. I sighed in relief and continued on going.

When we'd gotten deeper and farther into the forest, I could've sworn I heard another pair of footsteps behind me. Stopping and looking back once more, I saw nobody. It just might have been a squirrel or something else. Remember, other animals live here too.

Continuing our nature walk for about sometime now, I finally stopped at one of the little waterfalls I saw last night. Seeing it now in late morning, it looked prettier. Seeing the water in the sunlight make it sparkle, and the mist rising up from the crashing waters made a rainbow appear right by it. When Sakura noticed it, she kept whining and reaching for it. I giggled and decided to walk into the clear shallow water to let her touch it. Afterwards she wanted to play in the water, so I let her.

I watched her along the bank of the small pond, having fun while splashing, swimming, and also watching out for her safety. I didn't think that owning a Chao could bring this big of a smile on my face.

While watching her for the last five minutes or so, I then felt another series of pokes this morning. Great…I knew there was someone following me!

I stood there like a statue for a moment, disappointed that my plan didn't last long as I hoped. I knew it was bound to happen anyways. Slowly turning around, I saw the person who poked me. When I found out though, my disappointment slowly turned to happiness as I saw my best friend standing there with his Chao, Muffins.

"What are you doing?" asked Dylan with a concerning look, but he tilted his head to make the situation less serious. Shortly after, Muffins copied the same movement.

I laughed at the sight, and then answered by asking him the same question.

"Heard something, woke up, saw you leaving, followed you." He answered short and sweet. I knew I was bound to wake someone up walking through those leaves. "Now you?" He questioned again.

Having trouble what to say, I couldn't just tell him that I wanted to stay here, after all our excited discussions to travel to each famous city. Last thing I wanted to do was disappoint him. So, I decided to say: "I just want to explore the forest again…"

After that, Dylan didn't reply. All that he did was lift his right brow and gave me a smirk, knowing what I said wasn't true. I bit my upper lip and looked to the side and try to ignore it while holding my giggles, and also to check on Sakura.

"Court Court…" My best friend said my nickname seriously and funnily. I couldn't help and release my laugh.

"What's the problem of going exploring in the morning?" I looked back and tried to defend myself while smiling uncontrollably. Still, Dylan continued with his look and didn't believe me. I'm such a bad liar, why did I even bother?

"It is the problem." He chuckled. "I know you're not a morning person, Court."

I made a soft sigh, and shook my head slowly in defeat. I looked back at Dylan again, with my smile faded to half.

"I kind of don't want to go back." I finally confessed. As soon as I spoke those words, Dylan now looked at me kind of relieved, like he'd felt the same way.

Then he said that he wasn't ready to go back either. What are the odds? I knew that he loved being in this world, but I didn't know how long he wanted to stay. I breathed another sigh of relief.

"…But you know we have to go back, Court. Eggman will keep getting ahead if we stayed." Dylan said with a hint of serious in his voice. I sadly mumbled out a 'yeah'. He looked at me and placed a hand on my left shoulder.

"It's not our last time being here though; we'll be back as soon as we get one of those H.I. thingies." He laughed for a short moment. "And you know…I have a feeling that this journey will be longer than the last, so we'll be visiting here till we get tired of it." He smiled confidently after each word in his sentences. I believed his words, and couldn't help but smile back at him.

"But you know _that's_ not going to happen…" He added as I picked up Sakura, and we started to leave. I giggled. "Nope!"

* * *

As soon as we got back, everybody was up and awake. Chelsea was sitting up on the grass half-dazed, Trevor was looking at his phone, Shadow was leaning against a tree with his usual pose, and Sonic and Knuckles were up on the altar of the shrine conversing with each other. Since they were the only ones talking, we couldn't help but overhear.

"Are you sure you don't want to join us?" The blue hedgehog asked, almost eagerly. "There's always room for another member."

The red echidna blinked at him clueless for a few times, then chuckled. "Sonic, you know mighty well that it's my duty to protect the Master Emerald. Its ok for me to leave on some adventures, but all the time is unnecessary. I think I told you this sometime before."

Sonic also looked clueless, but he snapped out of it as he remembered the discussion they had about this. His mood went sad for a moment, but he accepted his answer and smiled his famous smile.

"Ok. We'll miss you Knucks!" He said before he fled down the long set of stairs on the shine. Knuckles smiled, then turned around to us down below and shouted: "Wish you guys luck! You all be careful!"

"You too!" Dylan shouted back and added a wave.

As our team assembled together, we discussed of what city to head to first in our world. Since it was our first time going to a big city, we've decided that we should start off someplace easy, a city with our same language and culture.

"Tokyo!" Was the first place Chelsea blurted out. Dylan made a facepalm.

"Someplace easy Chelsea…" He softly laughed while shaking his head frustrated.

"It's easy for me!" She replied to him bubbly, her cheerfulness never leaving her.

The first place that came into mind for me was Italy. I know that it was a country, but it didn't matter to what city we decided to go to, as long it's in Italy, I'm happy. I think that it was the first place that popped into Dylan's mind too. The city he wanted to go to there was Venice, and he wanted to go there more than anywhere. When I researched on Italy back at home, I found out that Venice wasn't as big compared to what Rome was. Maybe after this gem hunt was finished, we can stop by for a little while.

"New York City?" I heard Trevor's suggestion, interrupting everybody's fantasies of dream vacations except for Sonic and Shadow. Chelsea, Dylan, and I all looked at Trevor, then each other. New York City wasn't the place that we dreamt going to first, but it was what we've been looking for. We nodded in agreement.

Unchaining the necklace around my neck, I did the same technique that I've done before entering this world. Everybody backed away to give space, I raised the Harmonic Iridescent in front of me, closed my eyes, and thought of the location we're going to. As I opened my eyes, a little multicolor firework display appeared like last time. As it the sparks begun to grow more, it was fully developed into a bright colorful portal.

"Ok, it's ready." I told my friends as I quickly placed my necklace back on, feeling the calm rushing through my body again. Before anybody replied or moved ahead, Trevor made an excited screech and then ran head first into the portal, leaving awkward stares and silence behind.

"Haha…Ok." Laughed Chelsea, as few seconds of awkwardness flew by. Sonic snickered shortly after.

"Well if he's that excited, so should we!" He said in an upbeat attitude, then yelled 'woohoo!' before he dashed right into the portal. Shortly after, Chelsea got in, Dylan got in, till it was just me and Shadow. He grunted.

"Whatever, I'm not for it…you go next Courtney." Said the black hedgehog, stepping aside for me. I sadly gave him a look, and he couldn't help but give in. I was surprised how quick he gave into it.

"Alright…" he grumbled as he started walking to portal, until he stopped before he got one more step to go into it. "Umm…yay?" he tried to sound excited, and then he looked to me to see if he was doing it right. I shook my head and smiled.

"Give it more feeling." I advised. Then, I heard happiest yell that ever came from Shadow before he jumped in. I widened my eyes in shock, never giving the thought that he can make a sound _that_ happy.

_Another accomplishment for the day_. I thought happily. Then I made my cheer before I was engulfed by the radiant colors of the portal.

* * *

Out of the blinding lights, my ears were filled with the honking and the movement of vehicles, and the conversations of thousands of people. When I opened my eyes, I saw many rising skyscrapers and flashing lights of ads filling up Times Square, which we were now in.

_Yep, this is New York City._ I thought again. Checking, I looked at myself to see if I was back to normal. I didn't want to cause attention to myself if I was still a hedgehog. Good, I wasn't.

Then I paid attention to my surrounds, looking for my friends. It was hard, since I was the only person standing here among the other hundreds of people trying to pass though the sidewalk. Some people even shoved me out of the way.

"Dylan? Sonic? Chelsea? Trevor? Shadow?" I called my friends names and looked around everywhere, but they were not in sight. I didn't see any familiar faces.

This would be the point when I would freak out, but luckily my H.I. prevented that. Then I started to run around Times Square, checking every sidewalk and building there while pushing anyone that got in my way. An hour passed while I searched as I sadly lay against a side of the building, slid down, and sat down tiredly on the concrete.

"Great…" I said in anger as I slid two of my hands on each side of my face. A buzzing occurred in my jacket shortly after, and then it hit me.

_I had my phone this whole time, and didn't even bother using it!_ I screamed in my head, typical blonde moment for me right there.

Rashly, I dug into the pocket of my jacket and then checked my texts from my phone, seeing that I had five missed texts from Dylan and Chelsea. I quickly responded and told them where I was. My phone immediately vibrated again.

"_You had us worried Court! We appeared right by the Empire State Building after we went through, and we didn't see you anywhere! O.o Sonic is on his way to get you lol, you're going to be surprised!_"

The last part of Dylan's message made me confused. Surprised? But I knew what he meant whenever Sonic got here.

A guy in my age stood in front of me. He wore a blue and white jacket with a blue sleeveless shirt underneath, blue jeans, and unique red and white shoes. When I got to his face, he had bright peridot eyes, and he had spiked back blue hair.

"Sonic?" I stood up slowly, looking at the now humanized hedgehog in front of me. My whole body trembled in shock. _He's human!_

"Yep it's me! Sonic the hedgehog!" He said while making a back flip in the process. A lot of people walking by stopped at stared at the trick, and either gave him glares or cheers. Yep, it was him.

Before I asked or said anything else to him, he grabbed a hold of my form and started to dash away, his incredible speed still in possession.


	9. New York

Chapter 9 New York City

Speeding through the Big Apple at a very fast pace, Sonic was the only thing that I focused on most then the tall skyscrapers and attractions that were flying past as he held me. He was human. Human! I didn't understand how he's not freaking out at the moment. I was whenever I turned into a hedgehog. Then I figured: it was a usual thing for him to develop changes in his appearance. Duh, he lives in a world filled with imagination.

Then I thought of how he got this way. Sonic's been in this world for about three days now. So I guess the same principles apply when entering another world for so long, you change to blend with it. At least I guess. All this stuff is confusing me still, like how does Sonic's world exist? How do we have video games about him? Did someone saw him before we did?

Sonic saw that I yet to continue staring at him, and did nothing but smirk and ran a little faster. At that pace, it wasn't long until we finally sped to a stop in front of the tallest skyscraper in the whole city: The Empire State Building. I stared at it in awe, can't believe that I was here in the biggest city in the U.S.

"Court!" All my friends yelled my name in unison, which cause me to bring me back to the real world. Once Sonic brought me down, they all came to me with relieved looks on their faces. While looking at them, I couldn't help but spot an unfamiliar face amongst the group. Another guy who looks as old as me, but had short black and crimson hair…

Before I finished listing details, I ran at the guy defiantly knowing who he was.

"Shadow!" I yelled his name while I gave him a short hug. He just stood there like a statue for a few seconds, and then quickly returned the embrace.

I looked back at him again, continuing to list details. He had the same shoes that he'd worn before as a hedgehog, and he wore a long black leather jacket in replacement of his fur. When I gotten up to his face, his eyes was the same color ruby color that I remembered, same with the grumpy facial expression he always wears. Yep, this is Shadow.

"How do you guys like being human?" I then asked both of the humanized hedgehogs with a grin formed on my face. Sonic returned a smile, while Shadow just remained the same.

"It's great!" The Blue Blur said excitedly while making a thumbs up in the process. "I'm always up for a new change!"

Shadow raised an eyebrow after hearing that, like it was complete nonsense. Dylan and I looked at each other, both thinking that it was false too. In every Sonic game that we played, Sonic seemed fine with all the forms he changed to. All of them, except the Werehog form in Sonic Unleashed. It was the only form which Sonic wanted to hurry to change back to normal from. The blue humanized hedgehog looked at our looks (now realizing that his words weren't all that truthful) and said: "Heh heh…Except for that one time…"

"It's okay." Shadow had answered when we gotten back to the 'do you like being human?' question. "Not quite used to the transformation, but I'm positive that I will eventually."

After standing there discussing for the last fifteen minutes or so of where to go to on our 'jewel hunt', we all decided to go to the top of the Empire State Building (since we're already there), then the Statue of Liberty, and the Broadway Theatre. These are some of the most populated places in the city to find the H.I. If we don't succeed finding anything in those locations, then we'll continue to go down the list of populated places. I hope Rouge was right about gems being in populated places. If not, then we'll have no other choice but to figure out another way. Rouge can be greedy about things such as gems. As I remember her saying in Sonic Adventure 2: "All the world's gems are mine to keep!"

Passing by many people inside the Empire State Building, we lead ourselves to the elevators, which there was a line for people waiting to get on. I puffed a sigh of anger. Why in the heck is there a line for elevators? Then something clicked that I wasn't at home anymore, this _is_ a city after all. Though Chelsea didn't get the hint.

"C'mon! Are you kidding me?" She yelled. Some people in line turned to look at us.

"Sshh Chelsea!" Dylan hushed her and told her to be patient, although he wasn't himself. The people in line finally looked away and continued on waiting and chatting with their own company.

While quietly waiting there in line with my company, my friends, I thought about the Chicago trip that my family and I will be going in June. Whenever my dad announced that to me and my little brothers earlier this year, it left me being very anxious to leave at that moment. I always wanted to go to a very big city, seeing all the skyscrapers and the attractions that were there. Also shopping, won't forget that. After this journey, I bet I'll feel more than comfortable being in cities. Maybe even around crowds.

"We're next!" Dylan grabbed a hold of my right arm and gently squeezed it as we moved up to be the first ones in line. I looked at him as he nonstop grinning at the closed metallic elevator doors, waiting for them to open. "Nervous?" I asked.

"Yeah and a little excited!" He responded in a hyperish voice. "This will be our first time being up _this_ high! Well, except for Sonic and Shadow."

"And think of the view." I quietly said as my eyes grew wide. It makes me wish that I'd brought my dad's camera with me. He would've approved of letting me borrow it for the adventure, as long as he sees all the photos I took afterwards. Well, at least I got my phone. I just hope it holds the hundreds of pics that I'm about to take soon and in the future.

With the doors finally opened again, all six of us rushed into the inside of the elevator while being crammed in by other people who were in line. It made me feel like the cream of an Oreo cookie, being tightly squished inside by two other cookies. I didn't like that feeling. Luckily Dylan was still holding on to me so I wouldn't get lost in the crowd.

Once the metallic doors have closed, we were all going up fast to the eighty-sixth floor. I never knew an elevator would go up that quickly. My ears popped as we got higher up.

The elevator finally halted to a stop, and the elevator doors opened once more. When all the people rushed out, we took a minute to catch a quick breath after being squeezed by all of them. We walked to the observation deck, and you can say all our thoughts being in the elevator were vanished like that.

It was breathtaking.

All of the thousands and thousands of skyscrapers and buildings in this famous city were all around us in a very high and gorgeous view. Now I really wished I had my dad's camera.

Sonic whistled as he stood close along the railing by one of the edges of the deck. "Way bigger than Station Square and Empire City that's for sure!"

I looked at Shadow to see if he was going to say anything, but he looked a little emotional at the moment. He eventually turned around and looked through other sides on the deck for different views of the metropolis.

Trevor was running around the area in a circle, trying to take the whole view in. Eventually he was stopped by some of the security. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

Chelsea was immediately on her phone taking pictures, which reminded me to get mine out.

"Are you going to take some pics?" I questioned my best friend while I dug out my phone from one of the pockets in my ivy jacket. Turns out he was already on it as he moved around and took a few shots of the city.

"Nevermind." I whispered as a cold February wind blew, leaving me huddling my arms for warmth for a moment. Then I went ahead and took my photos.

Once everyone was done, we gotten together again and focused looking for the H.I. We checked everywhere on the deck and the rest of the eighty-sixth floor. But there was no trace of a little sparkling jewel.

"Do you think it'll be on the tip at the top?" Chelsea wondered. Sonic's peridot eyes lightened up with enthusiasm.

Without a word, he crouched down as low as he can get and then jumped high in the air to the next roof of the skyscraper. The five of us saw with blank expressions on our faces along with a few other people who witnessed it. Sonic needs to be careful when and where he does things like this, because we were flooded with many questions afterward. Luckily we got away from them without the need of using our powers.

When he got back down, he told us he climbed at the top and saw nothing at the tip of the antenna or anything below it. I guess it's time to go to the Statue of Liberty.

A taxi drive and a run later we arrived at New York Harbor, now looking at the green female robed figure which was the Statue of Liberty. She was standing magnificently, telling everyone who pass and glance at her on her island that they were free.

Yet again, we took pictures.

"Don't tell me we have to cross _this_ to get to her." Sonic said, looking down frightened of the water in the harbor.

"It's only a short ride over." I reassured the blue human hedgehog, but he didn't seem to listen.

Shadow crossed his arms with a huff. "Just leave the faker. It's his loss that he'll miss half of this trip by water."

"I won't miss anything." Sonic responded late with a little laugh, his fear gone for a brief moment. He seemed to have an idea. "Instead of taking the short cruise, why don't we use Chaos Control?"

Shadow glared at Sonic, trying to wipe of the appearing grin off his face. "No."

"But you do know that we have to finish quickly. Surely you don't want Egghead to get ahead of us, do we?"

Shadow made another huff. "Excuses Sonic. Yes, we are trying to achieve this goal as fast as we possibly can, but nothing's wrong by stopping once in awhile to enjoy the sights around us. Life isn't all about increasing speed."

Whenever Shadow was telling Sonic this, I couldn't help but notice that there wasn't any anger in his eyes when he spoke. They were calm. I can also spot a little amount of sorrow within the ruby orbs, hiding behind the ease.

I walked to Shadow preparing to ask what was making him feel this way, but he walked off to the boats whenever I took a step. It soon ended with us following him, along dragging the aquaphobic humanized hedgehog against his will.

I never knew anyone who was _that_ scared of water.

* * *

Hours passed, and dusk was now overlooking the Big Apple. Turns out that nothing was at the Statue of Liberty, and it was a workout all the way there and back. Sonic never stopped fidgeting or stopped running around the boat ride there, on the island, and on the boat ride back. We couldn't calm the guy one bit. If that wasn't enough, we were crowded again with questions from people witnessing the fastest thing alive. Ugh, I just want to sleep.

On the taxi ride over to Broadway, I tiredly laid my head against the edge of the car door and rested my eyes, wanting to escape the city for the time being. But the vehicle stopped whenever I did, then the taxi driver announced that we reached our destination. I groaned.

We paid him and exited the taxi as it quickly drove away, going to the next person who desperately needed of a ride. We were met by Sonic and Shadow shortly after we got out. They've been following us by foot since only four other people can get in the taxi. It didn't seem to bother them, especially Sonic, whose life is given to running.

"Having fun?" I asked Dylan while crossing the avenue to get to the theatre. He nodded in agreement as he texted something on his phone, and then put it away in the pocket of his jacket.

"Yeah I am." He said tiredly. "Just ready to go to sleep, it's been a long and exciting day."

"Me too." I also agreed. Suddenly Chelsea held a grip of my left arm and squeezed it very tightly. I also heard her breathe heavily.

"What's wrong?" I asked her worriedly. Then she pointed to the theatre ahead, and pointed at the sign above it. It had a black background with a white mask on the bottom right corner. In glass-shattered words, the top said: 'The Phantom of the Opera'.

We both shouted in glee.

_The Phantom of the Opera_ was one of our favorite musicals. Well for me it was my favorite, but Chelsea liked other musicals like _Wicked _or _Rent_, which I still need to see. Whenever I first saw the movie, I was hooked. I then started to read the novel by Gaston Leroux (which was confusing to read at first, but then I got the hang of it), and asked my parents to buy tickets for the musical last year for my birthday. Whenever my mom and I saw it, I couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. It was just so magical.

Chels and I immediately started dashing towards the theatre, leaving the guys confused in the dust. Before we entered the theatre however, I stopped in my tracks. Soon Chelsea came to a halt as she noticed I wasn't running by her side anymore.

"What's wrong?" She asked me this time. I sadly shrouded my face.

"We don't have enough money for us to see it, Chels. Besides…we need to use our time to search for the gem." I explained to her, not wanting to burst her bubble. She sorrowfully awwed.

"Sad day!" She whimpered.

We waited for the guys to catch up to us, and then finally went inside of the theatre. Once inside, we were astonished again for the second time today. The inside was all dripped in gold and red velvet curtains and carpeting. Sparkling jeweled chandeliers hung on ceilings, tall mirrors on the walls, and other decorations made it seem like we were now in an elegant castle. And of course, we took pictures.

While that occurred, Chelsea went to the ticket counter and asked how much the tickets were for the show tonight. But it turns out the show was sold-out.

"But…" The ticket lady didn't end there. "We are holding a drawing for two people to win two free front seats and backstage passes. It expires in five minutes."

"We'll do it!" Chelsea squeaked and accepted without even thinking about it. She wrote our names on a piece of paper, and then she convinced the guys to do it as well. Well, more like forced.

People who entered the drawing started coming up to the counter when it was time to reveal the winners, crowding in our personal spaces. Once more today, I was being squished like an Oreo cookie.

"…And the winners are Daniel and Charlotte Thornton!" The ticket lady announced.

Figures.

The lucky couple who won came up through the crowd and excitedly received their tickets and backstage passes, while the others just shrugged or whined and exited out from the gorgeous theatre. We were the only ones who stayed.

"Eh, I doubt the H.I. jewel thing would be in here anyways." Trevor said while putting his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

"But this is a beautiful place; I know it's in here. I just know it!" I clenched my fists together.

When the play was close to starting, we started searching for the H.I. around the entrance and the grand staircase which leads to the theatre. We often looked up at the chandeliers, seeing if there was a multicolored diamond hidden in there somehow, but no luck. Rouge did trick us after all.

Chelsea and I sighed as we heard the beginning of the overture through the closed doors to the theatre. Just one more time, I wish I can see the magic of this amazing play.

"Courtney, Chelsea." Dylan said our names. We turn our heads from the doors and look to see Dylan holding two tickets in his right hand.

"Omigosh!" Me and Chelsea squealed again with glee, then quickly snatched the tickets and squealed again.

"Dylan! How did you get these?" I asked him with my face written in excitement. He chuckled.

"Don't worry about that, go and see the play before miss more of it!"

After saying and giving a bunch of thank yous and death hugs to our awesome friend, we dashed through the doors to the theatre (quietly of course), found our seats, and watched the wondrous play take place. We didn't miss much through, we were at the part when Christine, the heroine of the story, starts to sing for everyone when the prima donna, Carlotta, quitted.

I never let go of my smile as we continued watching the play. As we watched it though, I thought of my best friend. He has done so much for me, and what did I do? I really do owe him after this.

As Christine's singing continued, people came and added more stuff to her costume when it turned from her rehearsal to her performance. I couldn't help but stare at the necklace that they just put on her. It almost looks similar to the one that I have on! Could it be? It must be the H.I.!

Before I can whisper to Chelsea about this, something crashed through the ceiling and landed on stage next to the actress who played Christine. Some people panicked, and then it lead to large amount of people exiting out.

When the dust cleared from the crash, a dangerous looking guy about like my age stood and held a glowing gold ring in his hand.

My gold ring.


	10. Anthony

Chapter 10 Anthony

Other than a guy that just appeared on stage with _my_ ring, he was also wearing a long midnight black cape, and a white mask that covered the right side of his face.

So wait, was he the Phantom? The Phantom in the play? No no! It couldn't be. He had the ring, so which means that it was some idiot from my school standing on that stage.

His modern day clothing showed beneath the cape when he moved, and he did nothing but look around at the audience but mostly keeping his eyes glued on the necklace Christine was wearing. The H.I. Now I knew it was definitely the jewel because the actress didn't show any signs of fear whenever the crash happened, and now when the guy is staring at her. She was in peace.

But why was the boy looking at it? Does he know about the H.I. and what things it can do?

"That's weird. Isn't the Phantom supposed to appear in Christine's mirror?" I heard Chelsea whisper to me, breaking my thoughts. I made a slow nod as I continued to focus on the fake Phantom on stage, which just started to singing to Christine.

It was hard to believe that he sang so well. I would've expected a lazy job from this imposter.

Even if his singing's good, he just sung what he wanted to say to the actress. He didn't sang any songs or lyrics, but he did use the tune of "Angel of Music" to keep it play-wise.

"_Christine, my dear, would you so kindly come here to me. You have something that I need. Come to me."_

I stood up along with several other people in the audience, who were pretty ticked that the musical wasn't going like it used to. I was mad too, not only because that my second time seeing this play was ruined, but the fact that he held something that was dear to me, and that he might be aiming for the H.I.

I know it's a crazy thought, but I need to get on that stage.

Without a word, I grabbed and held on to one of Chelsea's wrists, rashly passed the seats in the row, then dashed down the aisle that lead to the stage. During all this, Chelsea kept asking questions.

When I was about to answer to one of them, we stopped before we reached the security guards that were at the end of the aisle, both giving us the eye to get back to our seats.

But why are they just standing there? Don't they know that some stranger just broke into the theatre and stole the leading role of the play? Angrily, we headed back up the aisle. But we went towards the exit and not our seats. Something very strange is going on…

Sonic, Dylan, Shadow, and Trevor awaited for us by sitting near the theatre's doors, all of them looking quite concerned.

Trevor got up came to me, hyper like always. "Is the play over? We saw crowds of people exiting out."

"Yeah, and they all looked rather upset. Is the play that depressing?" Sonic asked next. Then it lead to more questions, most of the same ones Chelsea repeated. I explained to them to what was happening. Their eyes lit up in surprise when I told them about the ring thief being there, and what I thought he was planning on doing.

Shadow huffed. "What are the possibilities of that ignorant person being here in the same place we are? And how would he know anything about the H.I.?"

"That's what I want to know." I replied, blending in with all the confusion. Meanwhile Sonic's arms were crossed with his right foot impatiently tapping.

"Well, we just can't stand here motionless! I think it's time to teach this guy a little lesson!" He said as he was about to grab the handles of the doors.

"We can't go on stage. Guards were preventing the passageway." I told him. He lowered his eyes at me as if I forgot that he was Sonic the Hedgehog. Then he went in. A second later, he was back.

"Nobody's on stage." He said.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! Unless they went backstage."

Almost near the giant doors to the theatre, was a regular sized golden door. A door that led to the stage of the theatre. We almost couldn't recognize it at first, since it was camouflaged with the rest of the walls in the elegant lobby.

There was a small sign that hung in the middle of it that said 'keep out', hence is how we found the door. Sonic looked at it for a few seconds, grabbed a hold, and then flung it behind him like it was nonsense. We looked around to see anyone was watching us before we entered, but it looked like all who worked in the theatre were getting complaints by all the angry Phantom fans. So, we all passed through without getting caught.

Passing by a long hall filled with doors that lead to dressing rooms, we gotten to the backstage. But we quickly went back and hid, for we saw the ring thief and the actress conversing with each other. Another thing that was strange, was that there wasn't any stage management crew or the rest of the actors. Usually the backstage is filled with people, but it was just and only them. Luckily, both of them didn't hear or see us.

"Why do you want this? It's just a small piece of jewelry that goes with my costume." The actress said calmly. "I don't think it'll be worth much…"

"I don't care how much it's worth. I have a better use for it," The fake Phantom spoke and tried to snatch the gem from her necklace. She quickly moved back before he had the chance to grab it.

"You tried my patience…" he said in a dangerous tone of voice as he took the ring out within the cape. He pointed it at the actress as it glowed a brilliant bright gold. Then he turned his aim from the actress to the floor for a split second, and shot a bright, yet, quick gold beam as a demonstration. It caused that part of the floor to be alit with a small flame, which transformed into smoke and a burnt spot.

_I never knew the ring can do that!_ I thought loudly in my head. I looked at Sonic, and he looked as shocked as I was.

"See that? Now give me it. Or else you want that to happen to you." He smirked at the young woman as he aimed the ring at her again.

That was when Sonic got in.

He ran at the actress, grabbed a hold and placed her by the rest of the group. Then it was just him and the thief.

"You know, it's not much like a gentleman to hurt girls." He shook his index finger. "Also, I believe you have something that belongs to a dear friend of mine."

"Oh this?" The boy continued to smirk as he shook the highly-energized ring playfully. "If you want it, come and get it."

The guy shot several beams at the blue blur, but he was all too quick for the beams to hit him. As he continued to do this, Sonic started showing off after dodging each energy shot from the ring. I couldn't help but laugh. However the thief didn't like it one bit, and now realized who he's dealing with. And he knew that he couldn't deal it all by himself.

"Adrian! Otto!" He shouted out two unfamiliar names. A minute later, out from the darkness from one corner in the backstage, were the two guards from before, now revealing that they were fakes too. Looking at them closely, they were also around the same age I was. One looked very dark looking with piercings over his face. The other looked goofy, an airhead to be more precise.

"Do your thing, Adrian." The guy winked at the dark one, then turned back to the six of us.

"My name is Anthony, Tony for short. This isn't the last time you'll see us. You'll see us again quite soon actually." The guy who's name is Anthony, laughed as darkness slowly engulfed my vision. Looking at Adrian, he was making some sort of black energy coming out from both his hands, making us fade to this darkness. Before Anthony disappeared out of my sight, I ran at him to grab my ring from out of his hands. When I did, the ring glowed and the blackness fled away from me. As soon as this happened, Anthony took the ring back and shoved me away from him.

"Well if it isn't Courtney Jansen." He said my name as looked at him with a dirty glare.

"How do you know me? I don't even know you." I tried to identify his face. He knew that I was having trouble, so he took the Phantom mask and tossed it to the side. Now I knew, his name was Anthony Anderson. He's one of those people in my school who just sit there during class and slack off.

"Don't you remember?" He moved his head to the side, acting confused. "We were in a couple of classes together in high school. You were always the quiet girl sitting there alone by yourself. Funny how you have many friends now."

I switched topic. "Give me back my ring."

He laughed again. "You're going to have to fight me to get it back, my dear." He taunted me with the ring like he did with Sonic.

My hands now clenched together into fists as I remembered how obnoxious this guy is. I ran at him again, trying my best to grab my ring back. But by trying that, he tripped me and I fell on the floor. He did another laugh.

"You look so cute when you're mad." He smiled. I then quickly moved one of my legs and tripped him. Once back up, I tried to retrieve the ring again. When I was within reach, he kicked me again when he was getting back up. This went on for minutes. I wanted so badly to trap him inside my force field, but how can that help with the ring issue?

"Instead of worrying about your ring, you should be helping your friends." He looked at me with another one of those stupid smirks. I then turned around to see all my friends all on the ground, fidgeting with their eyes tightly shut, like they were having terrible nightmares. Looking back, I saw that Anthony was gone, along with the rest of his group.

I ran to the quickest friend I got and awoke one by one from their terrible dreams. Once all of them were awake, they all looked spaced and freaked out from their nightmares. I reassured them the best I can.

While helping out the actress, I found out the necklace that she had disappeared. I guess one of Anthony's buddies must've taken it. Great.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" I looked worriedly at my best friend as I helped him. He made a short nod.

"Y-Yeah don't worry about me." Dylan said, trying to recover. "What about you? D-Did you face all these fears?"

I shook my head. "No, I got to Anthony and tried to get my ring back. But when I saw you guys, I rushed in to help."

"Did they get the H.I.?"

Sadly, I looked down at the floor with my eyes lowered.

"Yes."


	11. Apotos

Chapter 11 Apotos

Early the next morning, I head whispering of chitter chatter, and the gentle touch of Sakura snuggling closer as she slept on my pillow in the hotel room. I cracked open my eyes to look at the clock on the dresser by my bed, only telling me that half the night was over and the remainder needed for the sleep that I longed for some time now.

I'm glad yesterday was over.

After everyone recovered from their bizarre nightmares, we headed back and found the management crew, and the rest of the actors and actresses. They were all tied up in one of the dressing rooms that we once passed by. After rescuing them, they rewarded us by giving us autographs, tickets, and backstage passes for the next show. Unfortunately, we couldn't take half of the reward they given us, since we were on a non-stop tour around the world. And as if things couldn't get worse, the police showed and made us stay for another hour for questions and investigations.

…Anthony. If he and the other two haven't shown, it would've been a great ending to a great day. How did he get here? What is his strategy? When did he and his friends get powers? Ugh I need to stop thinking and go to sleep. Although when I tried, the whispers in the room got louder.

"Night Chelsea!" Hushed Dylan, leading to a sound of a hitting pillow.

"No!" Chelsea replied loudly, as I heard another hit. "When I close my eyes, all I can see are spiders!"

Then it led to a squeal by Trevor, making everything in the room wide awake.

"Me too!" He agreed frightened.

"So…much…water…" I heard Sonic's voice tremble with fear. Then it led more chattering from the three of them. It was then at that point that Shadow couldn't take it anymore.

"SHUT UP! Sleep! All of you!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Dead silence. It wasn't long till the peaceful sound of sleep came shortly after.

Later in the morning, I was awakened this time with the fresh aroma of coffee filling the air. I made a peek and saw Dylan in the kitchen area drinking some out of a mug while texting on his phone. When he placed it back into one of his jean pockets, I saw him make a glance over to us to see if anyone was awake. I quickly shut my eyes when he looked at my direction, but I was a little late.

"Court – Court…" I heard him say my nickname as he made a loud sip of his coffee. He continued on doing so till I opened my eyes again and had the urge to sit up on the bed. I automatically looked at the clock, which turned out to be eight seventeen. Still early (for me), but it was around the time that all of us should get up. Thankfully the coffee did its magic and disperse of the remaining drowsiness that was in me.

While putting a little more cream into my coffee, Muffins flew up from his resting place where Dylan had slept, and went over to him with a cutely yawn. He curiously looked at the mug Dylan held and the warm light brown liquid inside it. "Chao!" He cried to him, wanting to know what it was. Dylan made a little chuckle, and made him take a sip. However the sips became bigger and then he snatched the mug out of his hands.

"Hey!" Dylan yelled at his little friend with fake anger. "Chao Chao!" Muffins replied, then going back to drinking rest of the coffee. I smiled when Dylan made a fake grumble as he went through the process of making another cup.

"What time did you wake up this morning?" I asked while continuously stirring my beverage with a spoon. He was about to answer till we heard a soft buzzing sound.

"Around like seven something. Angela and my mom text me." He said while pulling out his phone and text again, and made a soft laugh. "They said they missed me, and it isn't the same at home without me…I miss them too." With a sad sigh, he placed the phone back into his pocket.

I wanted to say something to cheer him up, but it doesn't help that we're still in the beginning of our adventure, and that I'm feeling the same way as well. On our taxi drive to the hotel last night, I checked my phone and saw many texts and missed calls from my parents and grandparents, wanting me to know that they missed me and if I was doing alright. Oh course when I replied they were angry with worry, but our conversations lasted about an hour as I told them what's happened, and them telling about their days. I hate doing this to them second time in a row, but with Dr. Eggman and now Anthony and his gang in the way, we need all the help we can get.

I swear if anybody new pops up and wants to cause more problems to this mess, they don't know what's coming to them.

"Um Courtney?" a familiar voice asked. "You okay?"

"Huh?" I blinked and looked at Dylan.

"You were making a really dirty glare. Is there something wrong?"

_Great, I was probably thinking too much and spaced out._ "Oh! Nothing's wrong…it's nothing…"

Not for long, the rest of our friends had woken up out of their slumber. Half of them having coffee and all of us having breakfast after calling room service. Once we were done with everything, we paid for the hotel room and the food, which led to the conclusion of where to head next on the journey.

From the second we got there, it felt like paradise.

* * *

In a base far away from our heroes, stood a man with a egg-shaped figure with bandages covering half of his face. He was standing in front of a huge army of new modeled Eggbots, waiting for their creator to give out the first order.

"Alright…In case all of you were listening to my complaints before, you should know that I despise Sonic, Shadow, Courtney, and Dylan. I also despise many more, but let's not go more into details." Eggman had explained to them. "Just focus on the four that I've named. Behind you, you will see a screen that displays of what they look like. Remember those images."

All the bots turned their glance from the Doctor and onto the four images of hedgehogs on the screen. Unlike the two images on the left, which pictured Sonic and Shadow, the other two on the right switched from hedgehogs to humans, meaning that they took another form. The mechs burned their identities into their micochiped brains.

"Now that you know…" Eggman spoke again, making the Eggbots turning their attention back to him. "Do anything to stop them! Anything! And if by any chance you spot any of these gems…" The Doctor held up a yellow Chaos Emerald and a colorful Harmonic Iridescent. "Get them! Immediately bring them back here ASAP! Understand? Now move!"

In instant, the Eggbots fled from the base. Half of them going to the outside world, the other half going to another room, which they entered through a portal to the other world. All of them left, leaving Eggman all by himself. He sighed as he began to walk away while rubbing where the band-aids where placed on his face.

"That boy with the fire…I'll make him pay for ruining my handsome face with these burns! Ugh!" He grumbled while heading to his hovercraft that he used for who knows how long. He thought of new improvements he could make on it. Maybe after that's done, he can finally make that massive Eggbot that he's been fascinating for weeks. Oh the joy to his imagination to see the blue hedgehog and the others fall down in defeat from it.

His thoughts vanished as a dark orange figure dropped down in front of him.

"What?" Eggman flinched as he quickly took a few steps back. As the figure stood up, it revealed a light rusty colored hedgehog. He wore a grey and black jacket along with darkened blue jeans. A smirk was placed across his face.

"Hello Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Or should I say Dr. Eggman?"

"What?" The egg-shaped Doctor said again, but more shocked. "Who are you? How do you know me? And how did you manage to pass through my security?"

The hedgehog mischievously laughed. "I have my ways…I see you live in an unusual world, a world with nothing but fantasy and wonder…a world that I might happy to take over and make it my own image." After hearing the last part of the unknown hedgehog's sentence, Eggman made a long and hysterical laughter that which we all know and hate.

"Mahahaha! Don't make me laugh! _You _taking over _this _world? Ha! Get in line, because I'm going to rule it! Two worlds to be more precise!"

"Oh really?" The hedgehog continued to smirk. "I guess you didn't thought about merging them together did you? It would be easier to reign without having trouble of going to two worlds." The Doctor's eyes grew wide.

"Actually yes I did! It is easier! That's why I'm searching for these in the other world." He pulled out a colorful Harmonic Iridescent to show him. "Along with the Chaos Emeralds, they are the key to success for that plan!"

"Oh really?" The mysterious hedgehog gave out a fake surprise to the small beautiful gem in his gloved hand. Then he reached out something out from his jeans pockets and pulled out a necklace with the same exact gem dangling on its chain. Eggman gave out a shriek.

"You! You have one!" He pointed at the stranger trembling with excitement. "P-Please! Give it me! I'll do anything for it!"

"Anything…?" The unknown hedgehog's smirk turned to an evil smile.

"Anything!" The Doctor pleaded.

The hedgehog flung the necklace over to Eggman, and caught it and danced happily like a little boy who had gotten everything for Christmas. "So, what do you want?"

The stranger made the same mischievous laughter that he had made before. "Like I said, the world, the new and approved merged world. Let me and my friends join you Dr. Eggman, and we will succeed to making the world ours. Nobody will stop us."

The Doctor slowly thought it over. He knew this guy will do something to get him out of the picture, he could see it plainly in his eyes. But, he wouldn't worry about it until that time comes. For now, he was happy he had a few suckers doing some of his dirty work for him, and that he wouldn't be that lonesome.

"Alright, you have a deal." Eggman agreed. "And again, what's your name?"

"Anthony."

* * *

Apotos.

A sea breezy town with a lovely ocean backdrop with many windmills on the island, as well as the island's close neighbors across the sea. It almost made me feel that I was in Florida again. The scent of the sea air and the crashing of waves in the distance… Oh, it was wonderful.

Before we took the chance to relax and have fun, we had to search for the Emerald first, sadly. Fortunately though, our tracker watches beeped so it wouldn't be that hard to find. We searched and searched till I eventually found out where it was. Gregorios, The town's priest, had it. He said he will give it to us if we'll help him find his missing glasses that he lost on the Windmill Isle. It left me confused how an elderly priest gotten through that isle with all the jumps and grinding, but I guess some things are better left unsaid.

"Got this Court?" Sonic asked a little uncertain before I began to dash off through the stage. I answered confidently with a nod. I've done this stage countless times whenever I got to play Sonic Unleashed. It was my second favorite next to Rooftop Run. To do the stage in perso-er hedgehog was like a dream come true.

And there I went, going through the isle as fast as I can while passing by breathtaking scenery, it was hard to focus because of it. Finally at the end of the stage, I found the pair of glasses lying in a wide space area with many windmills circled around. I grabbed them as I did a little pose as if a rating chart was next to me. "Yay S-rank!" I said happily to myself and then I headed back through the stage backwards.

When I gotten back, I gave the glasses to Gregorios and he gave me the blue Chaos Emerald. Mission accomplished. At last, we were finally free to do what we wanted. It was even better that we had a lot of time to spare, it was still morning.

"Hey Court! Want a Sundae Supreme? My treat!" The blue blur had asked me with a wink before he walked down to the Ice Cream stand.

"Sure!" I made a smile as he gave me a nod and proceeded. I looked around and noticed that all my friends disappeared. When Sonic walked back with the ice cream, I questioned that and he said they all went down to the beach and might be going sailing later.

"Oh that's sounds fun!" I said with excitement.

"You can meet them down later after we finish. I was thinking about going for run while you guys enjoy yourselves."

"And leave you alone?" My excitement drowned. I didn't want Sonic to be left out by himself, all because of water.

"I'll stay with you." I decided and took my first lick of my Chocolate Chip Sundae Supreme. Sonic was going to respond, but I was blown away by this ice cream! I never had ice cream that tasted _this_ good.

"It's one of Chip's favorites." Sonic smiled and then continued where we left off. "Court, I don't want you to miss all the experience here in Apotos. This may be the last time you'll visit here." He sounded a little bit sad.

"But what about your experience? I know you visited here once, it doesn't mean to blow it off on the second time here. Let me stay."

"Courtney…I'll be fine. Your friends are going to miss you." His sad tone continued.

"I'll still see them, its still morning. Please Sonic." I grabbed my hands together and made a begging face. The blue hedgehog shook his head till another smile appeared on his face.

After we finished our ice cream, both of us ran and raced through the Windmill Isle, and many other places across the peaceful breezy town of Apotos, creating laughs and memorable memories. I only wished days like these would last forever.


	12. Like the Wind

Chapter 12 Like the Wind

Morning till sundown, Sonic and I never left each other's sides for the whole day in Apotos. We raced and ran, walked and talked…time can fly pretty quickly when you were with the blue blur. Walking back to the beginning of town, we hoped to see our friends there waiting for us, but there was no trace of them except the citizens enjoying themselves.

_They can't be still sailing. It'll be dark soon…_

Sonic and I looked over at the ocean, seeing the sunset's golden rays sparkle upon the now midnight-colored waves and the many seagulls reining the skies. There was no sailboat in sight.

"I bet they're on their way back." The blue hedgehog reassured me, noticing a little worry on my face. "Looks like someone forgot our promise hmm…?" Instantly my head bolted up and shook. I almost forgot of the promise between us.

"No I didn't! I just…" I paused, trying to think of a good excuse. Before I ever thought up one, Sonic laughed.

"It's alright. I won't bother you with it anymore…this time anyway." He made a smirk. I gave him a gentle shove.

We started walking back, now towards the outskirts of the town. The plains and fields around the village are just as beautiful as the ocean views. Makes me wonder why there isn't as much people or tourists around. I guess since this world is perfect as it is, everyone's used to living around with such paradise.

Eventually we walked into a plain that surrounded us in a complete twilight view, plus another beautiful view of the ocean and Apoto's islands. As I continued on walking, now in daze, I realized at the last second that Sonic wasn't walking aside me anymore. I turned around to see him standing there looking down at something on the ground.

"What is it Sonic?" I asked curious. I walked back to him to see him staring at a small shallow hole. At this, I now looked at the hedgehog in confusion.

"This is where my first world adventure began. I planted my face here on the ground after Eggman had thrown me out of space." He chuckled as it faded into a weak smile. "Also, this is the place where I met Chip."

Aside from being weak, I made a little smile myself as I remembered the little maroon flying creature from Sonic Unleashed. He and Sonic made a lot of memories together as they traveled through planetary pieces, fixing the world.

"Do you miss him?" I asked very softly, barely even a whisper. I looked at him concerned, still seeing the same smile he had before.

"Yeah…" Sonic answered sadly as his smile disappeared. He then reached for something behind him and pulled out a silver collar with a green orb. It was the necklace that Chip had worn. Sonic looked at it for a few minutes and automatically moved towards an edge of the plain, a cliff, never leaving his eyes off the object. I quickly rushed to his side.

"I wonder why he would give this to me… It was the little guy's source of power. What would he do if the world breaks again and that I'm not there?" He questioned.

"He is Light Gaia, I'm sure he's able to do much more then he has to offer without it."

"Maybe…" Sonic sighed as he placed the collar back (in his quills?). Then it led to silence, the only sounds being heard is the calling of seagulls and the crashing of waves. I closed my eyes at the time being and enjoyed the soothing sea melody. When I finally opened my eyes again, I looked at Sonic and saw he was doing the exact same thing like was, except was that he didn't look like he was calm at all. It seemed like he was more tense than relaxed.

"Sonic? You okay?"

It took the hedgehog awhile till he opened his eyes. After he did, he blinked several times and then looked at me.

"Huh? Oh. I'm fine Court."

"What were you thinking about?" I asked once more, making Sonic's eyes back to same state it was earlier when he was talking about Chip. A powerful gust of wind blew by just then, making our quills move rapidly and the many blades of grass on the fields dance wildly.

"The wind." Sonic said simply. "…Me."

The powerful gust of wind slowly transformed to a gentle breeze. I continued looking him; the dusk's orange atmosphere gave the hedgehog a darker shade of blue to him. Well, not even blue even, more like a dark purple.

"I am the wind." Sonic continued, and then he faced back to the ocean again. "Just breezing by, passing through everything to get to danger and extinguish it. Along the way, there's always something that gets caught in the wind, and it quickly befriends it as the journey goes on. But once the journey's over, it departs, starting the cycle over again."

I lowered my eyes at the hedgehog, knowing this subject was bond to pop up. I can tell by the way he wasn't cheerful or cocky for the last few minutes. It hurts to see him that way. I know some of Sonic's friends had come and go, but it wasn't like they wanted to depart. For essence, I know that Chip will be more than happy to stay with Sonic, but his job of being Light Gaia is what made them separate. Even separated, their memories remained still. Just remember the good times when they were there, their adventures together when they traveled side-by-side. I'm sure that Chip, Sally, and the others all wanted that from Sonic.

But even if some debris had fallen out of the wind, many of them stayed within. Supporting the wind till it gives its final gust.

I thought it all through. I was about the say the same things I reasoned in my head to my hedgehog hero; about being the wind wasn't as terrible as he newly thought. But before I said a word, Sonic had said something that I would _never _hear him say. That anyone will never _ever_ hear him say in his entire lifetime.

"Maybe things will be better…if I remained still."

I froze in complete shock with my eyes widened at the hedgehog beside me. For at least a second, I felt nothing but only my heart pumping inside of me. However, since I wore the H.I. it demolished that feeling completely. Sonic, I know that you're upset at the moment…but I know you too well to say something like _that_. It's just nonsense!

"Courtney?" Sonic said my full name, his tone transformed to worry. He saw as I clenched my gloved hands into fists and my eyes closed shut. I really wanted to release my frustration, but the H.I. prevented me from doing so. I almost thought of tugging the chain of the necklace and throwing the gem somewhere nearby, just so I can release that emotion. But a part of me refused as I was turned instantly calm, back to normal again.

My eyes automatically opened as I heard a sound of a shot. It then led to a bright beam that shot Sonic's chest completely after he turned around looking for the source of it. Once he got hit, it recoiled the hedgehog to fall off the cliff, leading to the wave-filled ocean below.

"SONIC!" I screamed the blue blur's name as I ran and jumped off the cliff after him with no sudden thoughts. Before I lost sight of the field where I once stood, I looked to see the one who fired the shot. It turned out to be one of Eggman's robots. Not one of those boss-like robots, but an average Eggman robot. It just stood there, looking surprised of what just occurred just now. I growled angrily as the view disappeared as I kept on falling down, leading to feeling of me being peaceful once again. Once this is over, I'm seriously going to take a break from wearing that jewel all the time, at least for awhile. I want to feel all my emotions without something preventing it.

Sonic had crashed into the depths of the powerful waters of the ocean, as well as I seconds later. After I made contact with the water, it seemed like all my swimming skills had just disappeared. No matter much I tried to keep afloat, I always went down like a rock. Why is this? Is it because I'm a hedgehog and that I can't swim?

"No!" I cried out as I got a mouthful of seawater. I spat the salty liquid immediately as I took another breath of air before I went under willfully, looking for Sonic. Unfortunately under the water everything was almost in complete darkness, because of the sun's absence. I quickly came back up for air and searched under again, neither finding nor feeling anything underneath. This method continued repeatedly.

"CRAP!" I screamed out after going up for air, struggling as I did so before another humongous wave consumed me again. It seemed to be the sixteenth time now. "What can I do?" I questioned myself as I thought hard for a solution to this mess. "What can I do?"

It was then I thought about the Chaos Emerald that I retrieved earlier today. I quickly got it out from my jean pockets, and once I grabbed hold, it glowed a brilliant blue like I wanted. Now with hope, I went down under and searched again. Trying my best to swim around the area where he fell. It really doesn't help with me being near a rocky cliff, water was rushing in every way possible once the waves crashed into it.

I finally found him as he was slowly drifting down deeper in the water unconscious. It took all my strength and willpower to get to him. When I grabbed on a tight grip on his left arm, my lungs were begging for oxygen. On the journey back to the surface, I couldn't help but inhale some of the water. Back up, I did a series of coughs and try to get all the saltiness out of my mouth. Now I knew the reason why Sonic was aquaphobic.

Struggling through the waves I held on to Sonic as I keep us both afloat. As loud as I can possibly can, I cried for help. But only seeing nothing but more water in the distance, why do I even bother?

"We need to get to shore, just hold on Sonic." I said after I coughed up some seawater. Using one free hand, I paddled to get ourselves close to land as possible. By the pace we're going, it seemed like it will take quite a while to get to it. And it definitely doesn't help if there's a monster wave heading our way.

With powerful force, it pushed me to the rocky cliff, hitting my head as it did. Now everything was fogging and fading to me as we babbled close to the tall rock ledge, not even having much power to continue heading to land now. Far away in the waters, I saw a bright yet fuzzy light heading towards us. By the pace it was going, it was coming in fast. With the light being brighter, I couldn't help but shut my eyes. Was it help? Was it the end? I guess I'll find out after I awaken again.

* * *

**Shadow's POV**

It wasn't the brightest idea going sailing by ourselves. We didn't know what we were thinking. All of the sudden, the four of us just decided to rent a sailboat, and then go out into the open sea with neither one of us having the knowledge of sailing. What's even better is that now we were stuck on the boat with nothing but water that can go on for miles.

Perfect.

I just wanted to stay on the beach, enjoying my time here before all of us went to our next destination. It was my time to be alone. My time to think…

"Hey Shadow!" A voice called to me. For a second I thought it was that faker, but it was Courtney's friend, Dylan. He and that faker's personalities are almost about the same.

"What?" I said, annoyed that I wasn't alone anymore.

"Trevor, Chelsea, and I thought up of a cool idea of going sailing. Do you want to come along with us?"

I thought about it for awhile, and I couldn't help but to tag along. Yes, I wouldn't be alone anymore, but it was something I always thought about doing. What me and _her_ thought about doing. Before the crisis, Maria and I thought of the places where we would go in the world and what we planned on doing there.

"… _and in Apotos, we can go sailing and maybe get some ice cream afterwards!"_ I remember her saying with a cute little grin.

It didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. But now, I knew I made a mistake. I should have just said no and told the others to just stay put and continue what they're doing.

Or, at least, ask a person who knew how to sail to come with us.

Now we were just sitting ducks in the middle of a huge body of water. With wind going in every direction possible, we weren't sure how to control to sails to go back where we came from.

"Oh oh!" The short-haired brunette named Chelsea shouted out and started jumping franticly, now with another idea in her head. She went towards the sails again.

"No!" Everyone, including I shouted. Dylan quickly ran at her and stopped her immediately.

"What?" Chelsea said upset. "By the way the wind's going, it might lead us back!"

"Yeah! For now! Then the wind might change direction again." Dylan replied.

"Just trust me on this!" She yelled, now fighting with the orange hedgehog so she can change direction on the sails. Eventually she got a way around him and got control of the sails and moved them.

Surprisingly we were now moving in the right direction. Chelsea was right after all.

"See I told you!" The bubbly brunette said confidently. Dylan looked at her in awestruck.

During our way back to Apotos, the wind did not change in pattern as it continued to breeze on north. I don't know how this was possible but I was sure enjoying it as we continued on sailing back. By the time we saw Apotos again, it was near the end of sundown. I made a glance over to a ledge where lonely windmill stood with wide space plain. Two hedgehog figures stood next to each other right along the edge of the ledge, looking out towards the sea.

"Must be Courtney and Sonic." I said to myself. I continued on looking at the two hedgehogs before I heard a faint shot coming from the same spot they were, which lead to one of them falling down into the ocean, then the other following after. Oh no…

I quickly told what I just witnessed to the orange hedgehog and the two humans. Now their relaxed faces turned into shocked ones.

"What can we do? It's not like we can make the boat go faster!" Trevor panicked as he looked around the sailboat for something that can make the boat increase speed. There were paddles, but it would only have little effect.

Dylan lit his right hand on fire, thinking of something of that element that can push the sailboat in full acceleration. He looked at the sails, and then looked at the flame on his hand again. He thought of something.

Traveling back as he can on the sailboat, he now made his other hand lit with a flame and then made the fires on his hand grow enormous in size. Because of the huge amounts of heat he was giving, it then made the sails push out way more, making our destination becoming closer in reach.

"Dylan you're amazing!" Trevor screamed out, still shocked of what his friend can do. The orange hedgehog gave out a chuckle.

Five minutes later we were now by the rocky ledge, now searching for the two fallen hedgehogs that desperately need of a rescue. The sun had finally set, but luckily we had Dylan's fire ability to give us a useful source of light.

"There they are!" Chelsea shouted as she pointed at two hedgehogs close by the rock ledge. Courtney and Sonic were bobbling out on top of the rough seawaters, close together. Either of them responded as we called out their names, which meant they were unconscious.

We led the boat close to them as we reached out, grabbed, and placed them inside of the sailboat. After inspecting them both, Sonic was the one who was the most injured. He must be the one who gotten shot, seeing the medium sized wound on his chest. Fortunately both were still breathing, a while in the sea longer they would've been in a more terrible condition.

Since we were close to land, it wasn't long till we reached shore. I grabbed a hold of Sonic, while Dylan grabbed Courtney. We all fled out of the boat, not even bothering if the boat might be carried to the ocean again. I can handle the charges.

But once we rashly entered back to the white and blue filled town of Apotos, we stopped in our tracks as the peaceful town we saw was under control by the Doctor's robots.

And in the middle of this reign was the Doctor himself.


	13. Stalled

Chapter 13 Stalled

**Shadow's POV**

In the middle of the now robot-cluttered town was the Doctor in his usual hovercraft machine, shouting out different orders to each of his mechs before his sight had set on us. His mouth opened to a full grin which only happens if his plans are going along perfectly, not to be ruined by his blue streaked nemesis…yet.

This time however, it was going to be me.

He hovered close to us, noticing the limp blue hedgehog that I gripped on in my arms. He gave out a shriek of joy, which let out to a series of his laughter that nobody even wants to hear. He won't be laughing after this place becomes a metal scattered mess.

"Well well well…it seems like my Eggbot has told the truth! It's about time one of you have caused enough damage to that pesky hedgehog!" The Doctor said while pointing an index finger at Sonic. A robot then came up to Eggman's hovercraft, asking for some sort of reward. It gave me the answer that this was the mech that shot the faker in the chest. The Doctor only laughed once more.

"Your only reward is to keep up what you're doing. At this rate, you might end up killing the pathetic excuse for an Ultimate Lifeform that is right in front of me!" His index finger now aimed at my face. A deep and furious growl rumbled deep in my throat till I finally roared out "WHAT!" at the top of my lungs. I'm way far from pathetic!

Before I could drop my injured rival and ram my gloved fist into the Doctor's face, the robot spoke again about asking of a reward from his maker. Little does it know that Eggman never gives, he only fulfills his own selfish desires.

"NO! Now go back with the rest of the army or I'll force you!" Eggman had commanded, threating it by showing he was about to press a button on the control panel. With an alert, the robot did as it was told. The minute he got back in the crowds of the metal soldiers, they all began to load their weapons, aiming at no other than us as the target. I heard Chelsea make a frightened gasp behind me, leading to Trevor reassuring her that nothing bad will happen. Dylan looked at the surrounding robots, and then to me with a confused stare that seemed to ask: "What now?"

I looked at my injured rivel below me, as well as Courtney in Dylan's hands. What can we do if we have two fallen as well with two humans that have no knowledge in combat? Thinking quick, I turned around and gave the blue hedgehog to Trevor as I mentioned Dylan to do the same to Courtney with Chelsea. I then reached behind me to grab the only Chaos Emerald I had and gave it to Trevor, for which I quickly instruct him to how to use Chaos Control and for him and Chelsea to escape to a safe place until the battle's done. His confusion was now replaced with excitement as he gripped the mystical emerald in his free hand.

"Yeah! I always wanted to do this!" Trevor squealed joyfully as he swiftly went beside Chelsea, who was frightfully stiff looking at the surrounding robots. It took the egg-shaped doctor at the last minute to know what we were doing, so at the time when Trevor shouted out "Chaos Control!" he commanded his mechs to shoot. But the bullets, lasers, and energy beams only shot through the emerald's bright green radiance of their disappearance. Of course the Doctor threw a fit, but surprisingly enough it didn't last as long as I thought it would.

"Whatever. I could get that little blue pincushion anytime, seeing he's not going be running in that condition for awhile now. In the meantime, you two will do. Against me and hundreds of my powerful robotic creations, you both won't stand a chance!"

I shook my head slowly in disbelief and glared daggers at the Doctor. "So you're saying we can't destroy the _few_ of these robots though we destroyed _millions_ countless times in the past. Sonic may be powerful, but you're forgetting I'm the ultimate in power."

"Yeah! I destroyed numerous of robots with my fire abilities. Not to mention I flung fire on your face…twice!" Dylan chimed in as he laughed while pointing at Eggman's face, noticing the burns were still there.

"Shut up! At least they're healing…" Eggman roared while leading to an uncertain tone as he softly touched a burn on his head, leading to a wince. "But enough talk! Eggbots! Destroy them!"

Without a moment's notice, the robots fired all what they had at the both of us. But we dodged quickly at each shot and took them out one by one. I paralyzed them with my Chaos Spear, and then I used my teleport ability to appear to each robot either punching or kicking one till they're broken. With my strength building up higher as I destroyed each mech I can release the powerful destruction of my Chaos Blast, making an end to this fight. Just before I released that power, I realized that I might cause major damage to the buildings in town as well as the innocent people shielding themselves inside them. Just perfect. If only we were in a more spacious area!

Sparks of ember flew around the now slim battlefield as I saw Dylan either thrown a fiery punch or a fiery throw. Quickly with his agility he dodged each attack or bullet from the Eggbots like it was no problem. Just a few more then we'll be done with this nonsense. The Doctor, however, managed to make the battle longer.

With a smirk, he pressed a button in his round hovercraft and shot a very big beam headed towards Dylan's way. I shouted to warn him but it was too late as he got jammed in the back. It caused the orange hedgehog to recoil a few feet from where the last few mechs stood.

"Dylan!" I shouted again as I skated up to him quick. Fortunately there were no signs of injuries on the guy, but an increasing of temperature rose whenever I got close. The heat rose dangerous levels when I was about to support him, and when I touched the skin on his arm it immediately lit my glove on fire. Quickly brushing it off, yet backing away quickly in the process I saw the orange hedgehog slowly rise up, now with a deadlier glare than what I had on moments ago. He then turned that menacing face from me to Eggman.

"You are messing with the wrong guy…" He said in a dark tone in which I never heard from him before. He held out both of his hands in which fire exploded upwards like an erupting volcano. Looking at that display it flushed the life out of the Doctor's face. Being in a risk of his life being engulfed in flames, the egg-shaped man escaped the town of Apotos to somewhere far away. Thinking that Dylan's temper would have died there, it only worsened as pyro embers swirl and swirl around him from his fiery hands, consuming him to a twenty-foot tall tornado. It was now heading towards the direction where Eggman fled, which was through the town. Along the tornado's passage, many of Eggman's robots were sucked in, and then spat out as broken burnt metal.

"NO! STOP!" I screamed, but I knew it wouldn't stop the triggered pyromaniac continuing towards his goal. As he continued to get closer I ran to the fire-filled tornado, trying my best to remain on ground. I then took a few of steps back and jumped into the heat-scorched center and gotten Dylan out. With him gone, it made the huge twister shrink into a tiny flaming whirlwind and to small golden sparks.

A moment later after we fell on the ground, my strength failed for me to stand or even move. Whenever I moved a muscle, my body tensed in pain.

"Ugh…Get up." I told myself, dealing with the burns as I leveled myself to my knees. Beside me Dylan was getting up as well, he turned to me with another questioning look on his face. But before he said anything, Eggman came back. He looked at his army of robots that were now scraps on the ground, giving out a smile.

A smile?

"That should be more than enough time." His smile turned to another nasty grin. I looked at him confused. "What?"

He flashed another grin. "Taking over this town was nothing but to give more time for my new accomplices to retrieve the H.I. from the next city. I've just given the word that they have."

"Accomplices?" I raised a brow at the egg-shaped doctor. The only accomplices that I know were Metal Sonic and I, but in time we knew better than to assist someone as him. Whoever they are, they're only going to get disappointed in the end.

"Yes, three to be exact. They came pleading to aid me for our goal of world domination. It's nice to have some people who want to see the world like I do. You know I would love to continue with this conversation but," Eggman flashed two H.I. gems before turning away. "I'm afraid I have to go. Ta-ta for now!" With the fading of his evil laughter going to the distance, the Doctor was gone.

"It can't be…" Dylan whispered beside me. Meanwhile I was taking all my will to stand up, but I collapsed onto the stone pathway with increasing tension. I cursed loudly to myself from the pain and to that we've just been stalled.

Trying again, I attempted and finally gotten to stand up for a long length. Now I tried to walk, which took me three seconds to move each foot.

I went towards the direction where Eggman fled, which will only lead me to shore. Dylan caught up with me and touched my shoulder, apologizing and insisting for his help many times. My reply was shrugging off his touch and telling him to leave me be.

With evil three steps ahead and half of us injured…what are we to do now?

**Court's POV**

I opened my eyes to the faint sound of crashing waves and the cool sea wind blowing from a nearby opened window. As my sight adjusted to look at the view through the window, it turned out to be dawn. A little of sun's head peeked through the enormous blanket of ocean. It made me smile to awake in such a sight like this.

Wait? Awake?

I looked down to see myself in a soft feathery bed covered by a few blankets. Looking around, I was in a white bedroom in company with another bed partly beside mine. In it laid a resting blue hedgehog with a white bandage that wrapped and covered most of his chest.

I was for sure that Sonic and I were sinking down into the depths of the ocean after how long we were afloat. And that light? Was it a boat? If so, how did it reach to us in time to save us? I really thought it was going to be the end of us back there. It scared me so much…

To make me forget that memory, I took another glance of the beautiful view out the window. Without a second thought, I got up and headed to the door. I wanted to know what happened after I fell into unconsciousness.

Before I reached out and touched the doorknob, a weak voice called my name behind me. Turning around I saw Sonic looking at me with his eyes halfway open.

"Sonic." I whispered as I came to him to the right side of his bed. He blinked a few times and then asked, "What happened?" There was a short pause as I took a deep breath and exhaled.

"You got shot by a robot and fell into the ocean. I came after you, but I hit my head and blacked out shortly when I found you. I was going to go out and ask the others to find out the rest." I explained to him calmly, quickly turning my gaze to the door then back to the blue blur. "Are you okay?"

He was unsure of this as he tried to move up, but he quickly fell back into the bed. "I-I don't know…I feel numb all over."

"I think someone gave you medicine. The wound on your chest must've been serious." I said.

"Man…" Sonic spoke again in his now weakened voice. "Oh how I would do anything to run right now. It's boring just lying here…"

I blinked countless times after Sonic had just said that. Yesterday he said everything will be better if he remained still. The blue hedgehog looked confused by my expression.

"What?"

"You just said you wanted to run."

"Yeah, my favorite thing to do. You didn't know that?"

"I know that! What I'm confused at is why you would say that after a while ago you said, 'things will be better if you stood still.'"

"…I said that?"

"Um yeah!"

Sonic then looked at me with a dumbfounded stare and then face palmed.

"Oh gosh Court…you know when you get into those moods you don't know what's gonna spill out of your mouth. I didn't mean it; I was just a little upset after remembering the times with Chip and my other departed friends. I'm sorry if I worried you."

I made a small laugh. "It's fine. I know you really didn't mean it. It's not like the legendary blue hedgehog not to run. That's what makes him a legend. Faster than the speed of sound, the fastest thing alive, the-"

"Stop! Now you're really making me want to dash outta here!" Sonic said while putting his gloved hands up to his ears, not wanting to hear anymore.

I laughed again. "Well, is there anything you need before I leave?"

Sonic uncovered his ears. "What was that?"

"Need anything?" I repeated.

The needlemouse shrugged. "Eh, not really…Well I guess you can stay here and keep me company, since I'm stuck here." The hedgehog changed his mind. I couldn't help but giggle.

"Alright, but I still need to check in of what happened. I'll be back in a little bit."

"I'll be waiting." Sonic gave me a fake irritated look, which quickly formed to a smile. I shook my head, smiling too, and then I was out the door.

When I exited out of the house, the first thing I noticed was an orange hedgehog picking up metal pieces that were scattered all over the main passageway. Dylan took a quick glance over in my direction and did it again once he saw I was there. He dropped all the metal he held and I was soon embraced.

"Courtney? Are you okay?" Dylan asked when he let go. There was a troubled look on his face.

"Yeah I'm fine." I replied with relief, glad that Sonic and I weren't still out in the sea somewhere. "How did Sonic and I get back?"

"Shadow saw you guys fall from a cliff while we were still sailing. We got to you guys just in time before anything gotten bad." He explained to me, his expression didn't change. I looked around Apotos again, seeing more of the metal scraps not just on the passageway but a few lay around town too.

"What happened? Was Eggman here?" I asked again, taking a good guess he was. Whenever you see a robot or broken up metal all over the place, you know that ambitious doctor was near. Dylan sadly nodded.

"Yeah, when we came back with you guys the whole town was taken over by him. There was Eggbots everywhere. We let Chelsea and Trevor look after you both and escape so Shadow and I can fight them off." Dylan answered and explained more. He still looked down on himself, for which I don't know why. Despite the mess, looks like Shadow and him taught Eggman another lesson.

I smiled. "Looks like you both did a very good job. If it's the mess you're worried about, I'll help you clean." Dylan looked at me confused for a second, and then shook his head.

"Worried about the mess? No no it's not that…" His expression dampened more. I placed a hand on his right shoulder and looked at him worriedly.

"What wrong?" I asked softly, wanting to help my best friend any way I could. Guilt swirled in his brown eyes.

"I lost control of my anger in the fight. I burned Shadow badly and I almost destroyed the whole town." He told me as his eyes directed to the ground in sorrow. "In the end, the whole battle was a stall so Eggman's new accomplices could get the next H.I. in our world..."

The information that Dylan had told me slowly sunk into my mind. No wonder he's upset. I told him to look at me and said that everything was going to be fine. I reminded him that Shadow wasn't like the rest of us, so chances that he'll recover more quickly. I did notice Dylan's anger fits have been occurring more recently, but I think it's normal if you have a power such as fire. Then again, I would be blazing mad too if Eggman shot me in the back. I reassured that if he would get in that way again, I will help him.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked Dylan while we both decided to finish cleaning the town. It looked like he didn't have an answer.

"I don't know. Our two favorite heroes are hurt, Chelsea and Trevor are goofing off somewhere, and Eggman might be getting the next gem as we speak." Dylan kicked a scrap in frustration.

"I think…maybe the both of us should go and head over to the next city in our world." I said. Dylan looked at me in shock.

"But what about Sonic, Shadow, and our friends? We can't just leave them here."

"Sonic and Shadow need time to recover, I don't want the trouble them of relocating them to another place. Besides, I think Apotos will be the best place to rest instead of a hotel room in the city." I explained. Dylan thought it through.

"Yeah, you're right. But what about Chelsea and Trevor?"

"They'll just relax and take care of the hedgehogs while we're gone. I don't think any trouble will happen, since Eggman was just here."

Dylan thought it through once more, and then he agreed to my idea. "Alright. We better go tell everyone what we're planning to do. Then we'll leave."

We both separated. I went back into the house where Sonic was in and saw that the blue hedgehog had fallen asleep. I quickly awoke him and explained of what happened afterwards, and that Dylan and I were going ahead to the next city in my world. He nodded and advised us to be careful and not to do anything _too_ risky.

Just then when I said goodbye, Dylan came through the door carrying Shadow. He looked very displeased as Dylan placed him on the bed next to Sonic's.

"I told you I didn't need any help." He grumbled. "and I disapprove the both of you going to the next city. It'll be too dangerous if it's just the two of you out there."

"We'll be fine Shadow." I reassured him.

"Yeah, we'll be together at all times. If something happens then we'll use our powers and techniques. We've done this before you know…" Dylan reminded him.

"I have trust in them, and you should too Shadow." Sonic smiled at the black hedgehog. Shadow growled and mumbled out a "fine…"

"We won't let you down!" We said in unison, and then said our goodbyes.

Out of the house, Chelsea and Trevor waited and wished us good luck in the next city. I was expected them to be a little upset not to come along, but they looked happy as they can be.

"We got everything in control guys. Just don't go to Tokyo please! I really want to go there!" Chelsea begged.

"Hmm maybe we will…" Dylan said in a look of mischief. Chels ran up to him and playfully punched him in the arm. "You better not!"

He laughed. "Ok, we won't!"

When they left, Dylan and I tried to decide on which city to go to. Hopefully we won't pick the one where Eggman's new partners just got the H.I. from.

Finally we decided, did the routine with my necklace, and off we go!

**AN: Sorry for the delay everyone! I took a break and I had to think about what to do on this chapter. Again, I'm sorry! To make up for it, I will post more chapters within the summer! :D**


	14. Venice

**AN: First, I would like to apologize for not updating this story in such a long time. Since the last update, my life has only gotten busier and I did not have the time to work on this story. However, since it was Thanksgiving break, I managed to finish this chapter that I've been working on for a couple years. I don't know when my next update will be, I guess it'll be when I'll have another break.**

**I would like to dedicate this chapter to all my fans. Without you guys, this chapter wouldn't have been posted or this story wouldn't have been continued. Thank you. :) **

Chapter 14 Venice

On a giant flying fortress far above the sky, an evil doctor and three troublesome teenagers were planning on where to hit next on the reality-based Earth. The ship was floating far above Venice, the city which the three boys have retrieved another H.I. They now have three.

"Eh, I just say we screw off today and head where we need to go tomorrow. You did say one of your bots of yours nailed Sonic in the chest, and that Shadow was severely burned by that guy in glasses…" Anthony decided while lying far back in a rolling chair, now placing his feet on a table that displayed a hologram of the world.

"Yes, it's about time I got that stupid blue hedgehog to the condition he is now, he won't be running for some time. Even though Shadow was the most injured of the three, he isn't like others; he can recuperate faster than normal. So don't be surprised if we see him soon." The Doctor replied as he started to play with a few long hairs of his mustache as he paced around the cockpit. When he saw two of Anthony's feet on the map, he pushed them off.

"I'll be more than ready if I see that black hedgehog." Anthony smirked as his griped hands started to glow a bright yellow for a second, unnoticed of his actions. "Wait…did you say that three gotten injured?" He looked at the mad scientist confused. Eggman looked right at the boy through his circular shades, completely sure.

"Why yes. Did I forget to mention that Courtney was out, too? I guess the same Eggbot who've hit Sonic might have gotten her too. She was out cold when I last saw her."

Anthony's mood seemed to dawn down a little. Adrian and Otto, who were close by, grew curious of that strange action.

"Hmmm…if she would've gotten hurt as much as Sonic, then we really won't have that much to deal with. The boy with the fire, Dylan, scares me though. If you do something that triggers his anger he'll go out in an all-flaming rage. Maybe we can use that to our advantage somehow, any suggestions?" Dr. Eggman asked the teens, wondering if they can spark a creative idea.

"Maybe we should hold that towards the end, Doctor, think of the buildings that need to be demolished so you can build our empire." The dark Adrian said while raising a mischievous smile.

"Perhaps you're right on that one…" The Doctor sighed in disappointment, not having the patience to wait. "Well I'm off to the next room to finish my latest creation. You boys can do as you wish, go anyplace in your world if you like, just don't make any damages inside or outside my Egg Carrier, got it?"

"Yes sir." The teenage boys said in unison. Eggman stopped and gave a serious stare to the trio, and then he walked through threshold of the exit.

"Thought he would never leave…" Anthony huffed in annoyance.

"Have you given any thoughts of when we're ditching the old man?" Adrian mumbled softly to his leader. Anthony gotten up from the chair and started looking at the controls at the front of the cockpit, curiously.

"Soon when he gets his robot finished and when we have all the gems in our possession." He answered without even thinking it, and then walked back to the hologram sphere of Earth, and started spinning it around randomly like it was an ordinary globe.

"I figured as much." Adrian yawned and stretched, wanting something to do other than sitting and talking the whole time. "Say, do you want to go back to Venice? After I retrieved the iridescent from there, the people were setting up decorations for some sort of carnival."

"Carnival?" Otto's eyes bugged out in excitement. "I wanna go! I wanna go!" he instantly got out of his seat, jumping, pleading his boss to go. Paying little attention to his two teammates, Anthony kept his eyes glued to the globe. He used his right hand to stop in the Europe area and then tapped his index finger on Italy. The globe vanished as Italy was zoomed in and was the only thing visible. After a moment of loading, lists of city names sprinkled all over the boot-shaped country. He quickly tapped Venice. The country disappeared as pictures, information, facts, and other options on Venice flooded the hologram screen. Anthony looked until he found an option that you can overlook the city in present day.

_Good thing that Eggman launched a few surveillance satellites. That way, we can look into cities without the need to travel._ Anthony thought as he waited till the screen was done waiting for five minutes, the black screen faded to a bright view of the entire city of Venice. Using his fingers to zoom into the city, he saw many people walking around with unique costumes and putting up colorful decorations everywhere in sight, especially in the center of the city. Adrian was right, there is a carnival going on. He kept looking into more areas in the city, until Anthony recognized a face, two faces to be exact.

They were the only ordinary ones out of the bunch of colorful crowds. There was a boy with brown curly hair and glasses, and a girl with long light brown hair. It was none other than Dylan and Courtney.

_Courtney…? I thought she was injured? _

They were both running into the city with smiling laughter. A disapproving frown was set on Anthony's face but quickly got lit up with a smirk. In instant, he closed everything out of the hologram till it was a floating globe again.

"Alright boys!" Anthony said as he walked right over to the front controls of the ship, switched out of autopilot and lowered the aircraft down. "Let's have some fun."

* * *

Out of that bright iridescent light revealed another well-known city in our world. It was famous for gondola rides, waterways, and beautiful architectures.

It was the floating city of Venice, Italy.

"I can't believe I'm actually here…" Dylan said in awe, taking in the view in front of him. Venice was the only place that he really wanted to visit in our world. It was also one of the places that I wanted to go to as well. Aside that we're really pumped to be here, I couldn't help but think that picking this place was the wrong choice. Of course Venice is popular and all, but not as compared to Rome, Paris, and London…

Would we find a H.I. here?

A soft grip to my left wrist interrupted my thoughts as I looked ahead and saw Dylan grinning at me. With his smiles being contagious as they were, a smile formed on my face as well. Our excitement let us take off without warning, carelessly leaving my worries right where we once stood. The both of us kept running until we stepped onto one of the city's sidewalks. We took a moment to breathe and look around. There were many buildings that held much history to them as well as their beauty. Now walking, we took notice that each person that passed by us were all dressed up in big multi-colored costumes and masks. Dylan and I both exchanged glances, wondering what the occasion was.

"That's strange. Halloween is months away from now. Why are they dressing up?" I questioned my best friend.

"I don't know." Dylan said confused, while a couple passed us in bright neon-green clothing. "I looked up one time that Italy has carnivals or celebrations during the beginning of seasons. Since it's close to spring, I wouldn't be shocked if there's one going on now!"

A medium-sized poster that covered half of a building came to our view as we both stopped to observe it. On the poster it read, "_Partecipa al Carnevale di Venezia Masquerade Ball in mezzo alla citta questasera! Da sei a mezzanotte._" On the bottom right corner was an illustration of two fancy looking masks.

The only thing that I got out of that group of Italian words was 'Masquerade Ball'. So that's why people were dressing up and wearing masks. It was a masquerade! Dylan kept reading the text on the poster over and over again, trying to figure out what the other Italian words meant. He told me one time that part of his family is Italian; maybe he knew some of the language?

"Participate…Carnival…Venice Masquerade Ball…in city…" Dylan whispered the translated words and he looked back at me. "That's all I can figure out. At least we know there's a carnival going on!"

"Of all times when we have something important to do…" I sighed, seeing that we won't be joining in on the city's festivities. "With all the colors, glitter, and lights, it'll be difficult finding the H.I."

"Well let's look now before it gets dark, with the sunlight out it will be much easier to search. If we find it, we can join in all the fun later!" Dylan smiled in confidence and took a hold to my wrist again as we begun searching for the little sparkling gem. We ran to the most populated places in the city first, like: The La Fenice, Piazza San Marco, and the St. Mark's Campanile. Once we didn't find anything there, we walked and searched all the bridges in the city, twice, and then here we are resting ourselves in a gondola on the Grand Canal. The only accomplishments we got in those places were a ton of pictures for our photo albums and unforgettable memories with my best friend, but no sight of a powerful jewel anywhere.

I rested my head on the back of the small boat, looking up at the sky result of the tangerine-colored sunset complete with puffy clouds. I smiled at first; enjoying the view, but then frowned of the sudden thought that we achieved nothing today.

"Want to go back to Apotos after the ride?" I heard Dylan ask me. My eyes shot open as I looked right at my friend who seemed to have lost all the happiness of being here. He was all excited just a few minutes ago before we set foot into the gondola.

I sat back up. "Why? You do know that we're in Venice right? Coming here was your dream!"

His gaze focused out from me and into the front view where the gondolier was rowing the boat. "I know, but I felt like I made the wrong choice. I chose the place that we would have the most fun at, not where the H.I. was going to be. I'm so bummed because here we are doing nothing at all, while Eggman and those accomplices of his are probably getting _more_ further ahead. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Dylan continuously punched himself in the head. Before he can do more harm to himself, I quickly grabbed his fist and gently placed it onto his lap.

"Don't blame this on yourself; I wanted to go to Venice too. We both did. Sure, we didn't get what we were searching for, but instead we got an awesome time! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day with my best friend." I smiled at him while he looked back at me with a blank face that quickly turned happy with a smile. He reached out to pull me into a hug.

"I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day too, Court-Court." Dylan said during the embrace. A moment later, we let go.

Throughout the boat ride, we both discussed and decided that we enjoy the rest of our day in Venice, since it was almost nightfall and that the festival was going to start soon. That part of me returned and kept nagging that it was wrong choice to make, but even if we decided to have more free time, we were still going to keep a lookout on finding the hidden gem; it might even be with some decoration for the masquerade, which reminds me…

We weren't even prepared for the festival! We don't have masks or anything! I wonder if Italians would take U.S. currency. I have a bad feeling they won't.

"Ti sia andando al carnevale?" The gondolier asked us while still rowing away. The only thing I got out of that sentence was 'carnival'.

"Do you speak English?" Dylan asked out of curiosity. The gondolier turned our way for a second, nodding his head with a smile. "Yes, I do." He said with a heavy Italian accent. "I asked: are you both going to the carnival?"

"Yeah, we are!" Dylan said with his returned excited attitude.

"Surely you both are not going looking like that. Are you?"

"Uh…" My best friend and I said in unison. The gondolier laughed as he was returning to the dock where we came in at. He gently set his gondola along-side and secured the boat with rope, tying each end on two wooden pillars.

"Come with me." The gondolier helped us out of the gondola as we both followed him almost halfway through the city, which wasn't a burden. The fading pastel sunset just made Venice more beautiful with its decorative night lights. I was grinning throughout the entire walk.

The gondolier stopped at a small house that was connected to two other houses on the sides, just like with the rest of the homes in Venice. It was rare to find a house here just by itself.

He pulled out his keys in his pocket to open the door and welcomed us inside. Just like from the outside, the inside looked just as old. By old, I didn't mean it in a bad way; it was a fancy kind of old. If I were able to live here, I would love it!

The gondolier gestured us to come upstairs with him, to his bedroom, and made a sharp turn to go inside his walk-in closet, which was by an enormous window that viewed the center of the city. As I can tell from the majority of lights and the faint chatter of crowds, it looks like the masquerade has begun.

"Alright! Here we go!" The gondolier pulled out a big cardboard box that looked like it was filled with nothing but costumes and masks, telling by the overflowed top. He placed it on his bed and told us to look through which things we would like to borrow.

"You're too kind. Are you sure you want us to borrow some of your outfits?" I asked him, feeling uncertain.

"Yes, I am sure. I can tell you two are very nice people, and I would want to make your trip here in Venice, unforgettable." He answered generously, and then left the room to give us some time.

Dylan and I looked inside the big box and discovered very many types of masks and several big and elegant costumes. The majority of the masks in there are full-face masks but I much preferred the kind that covered the top half of your face. I think that Dylan was aiming for the same thing too.

"Oooh! Court-Court! I think I found the perfect one for you!" Dylan announced jittery as he gave me a mask. It was the kind that covered top half of the face, like I wanted, and the entire mask was coated in shiny silver paint, but it had uniquely painted violet swirls and amethyst gemstones of different sizes glued in different places. This was a keeper.

While Dylan was still looking for his, I came across one that he's probably been looking for. Again, it was a top half mask. This one, however, was coated in red, but it had pretty cool gold and black designs on the edges of the mask. Looking closer at the designs, I can see that there were little painted flames. Yep, this is his mask.

As for the outfits, well, like I described earlier, they were really big. I eventually found a dress close enough to match with my mask, although the skirt was a little poofy. It was a silk lilac colored dress that had black lace that cascaded down from underneath the bodice to the ends of the humongous skirt. I had a feeling I'll be bumming into everyone dancing in this thing. Then again, almost all the women that passed us today wore _bigger_ dresses.

Dylan had taken out every men costume out of the box, and didn't look like he would want to wear any of them, because of the size and puffiness. I pointed out one that was mostly black, but it had really poofy red and gold sleeves. It was the only outfit there that would match with his mask.

"I'll look ridiculous..." He mumbled self-consciously.

"And you think I won't by wearing that puffy dress." I said.

"You'll look great." He told me with a soft smile.

I shook my head. "Doubt it."

After persuading him a couple times, he agreed on wearing the costume. When he got done dressing himself in the bathroom, he didn't look ridiculous at all. He had this 'dark and mysterious' look to him when he wore it. He was so happy of the result; he couldn't stop making poses in the nearby mirror.

I went into the bathroom next and tried on my dress and mask. I felt like I was going to trip several times because of the skirt, but luckily without help, I eventually got into it. Once I got my mask in place, I looked into the mirror as one word popped into mind:

Ugly.

What was it? How come I didn't look good? I don't have the right figure?

Questions kept pouring in my mind as I kept looking at myself, not liking the result one bit. I turned to the door and decided right on the spot that I was going to find a different dress. If nothing else works, then I guess I'll just wear my normal clothes. My T-shirt was purple anyway.

Walking back to the bedroom, I felt Dylan's stare as I headed for the box and started to dig out for masks and dresses again. Dylan walked over and stood beside me.

"What are you doing?"

"Finding something different, I look horrible."

"No, you don't."

I made a small laugh as I continue to look for dresses, until I felt hands on my shoulders and was turned Dylan's direction. He took his right hand off for a brief second to take off his mask, so I will get a better look at his 'are you kidding?' expression. Despite how upset I was, I had to laugh a little at that.

He led me to the mirror where he was posing at, and I got a half view of myself again. I turned away, not wanting to see my reflection again until I changed.

"Please, look at yourself." My best friend told me. I still refused.

"Courtney…"

"Okay." I looked at myself in the mirror again, finding no point in this. Next to me in my reflection, I saw Dylan smiling, but it was a different smile from all the other smiles he's done. I think I saw this smile once when we were back in Sonic's world on our first adventure.

"You're beautiful." He said.

I froze as I blankly stared into the mirror. No one (other than my family) has called me beautiful before, and to hear it from my best friend made all the insecure thoughts disappear.

Why was that?

After that short moment of stiffness, a smile spread across my face.

"Thank you, Dylan."

After thanking the gondolier, Angelo, for letting us borrow the masks and costumes, we were now on our way to the Carnival of Venice.

It wasn't that far of a walk, since the gondolier's house was close enough to the center of all the action. Dylan grabbed my wrist again as we started to laugh and ran to the colorful mob of dancing people. There was a classical live orchestra, lots of decorated lights and fireworks, and plenty of Italian cuisine. There was so much to take in! It felt as if I was going through a colorful dream.

As it turns out, more people bumped into me than I bumping into them. Their costumes were so big and decorated; it made me wonder why they would choose to take the risk at dancing. Luckily I did not make anyone trip or step on their clothing.

"Hey Court, I'm going to step out to get some air. I'll be right back." Dylan told me while taking off his mask.

"Alright, when you come back, I'll be by the food courts." I told him as he nodded, and walked off.

I picked up my big violet dress as I headed my way towards that direction, until someone had stopped me. Looking up, I saw that it was man wearing a classic black tux, along with a decorative fox mask that only covered his eyes. He reached out his hand to grab mine, kissing my knuckles.

"May I have this dance?" He asked in a seductive tone.

"Uh," I managed to say as I glanced back, seeing if Dylan was in reachable distance. Unfortunately, he wasn't. I looked back at the stranger with a timid smile.

"Oh, my apologizes. Do you have a date?" He asked. There was something about him, his voice sounded very familiar to me.

"Oh! No no…I'm with a friend." I glanced back again, only this time he directed my gaze back at him.

"No need to be shy, my dear. It's just one dance." He lightly chuckled, his hand on my cheek.

I didn't know what came over me, but I let him lead me down to the middle of the dance floor. As the tempo of the music started to quicken, he held both of my hands, twirling me around to the music.

When he twirled me back to him, he pulled me until my back met his chest. Both of his hands glided from my hips to my neck, touching my necklace chain that had the H.I. Quickly with reflect, I shoved him away.

"What's wrong, my dear?" He asked as he got closer to me, grabbing my arm as he pulled me back to the same position. This time, his arms were more secure around me.

"Never danced with a man before?" He whispered into my ear, lightly kissing it.

I squirmed and elbowed him in the chest, making him release me. I turned around and swiped the mask that was hiding his identity, which revealed the face of Anthony.

"I knew there was something about your voice…" I said with a look of disgust, throwing his mask to the side.

"It's nice to see you too…" He softly chuckled, a smirk forming on his lips.

"I believe you have something of mine, and that you and your buddies owe an apology to my team."

"Why would we apologize?" He chuckled again as he approached closer to me. "Besides, _you're_ the one who has something."

As his hand reached out to grab my necklace, he was pushed away as I summoned my force field. Because of this action, everyone around us stopped dancing to stare at us. When everyone's eyes were on me, people started to clap and cheer.

I looked at the crowd confused, thinking why are they not scared or concerned. Then it hit me, they probably thought it was part of my costume. Looking ahead, I saw Anthony getting back up.

"Shut up!" He pulled out my ring, shooting out a gleam of light. It hit one of the strings of lights from above, making electric sparks cascade on to us and the crowd. Everyone grew silent.

"Thank you." Anthony said in an irritated tone, walking close to my barrier again.

"You can't shield yourself forever, you know…" He glared at me, and then he swiftly turned to his right. "ADRIAN! NOW!" he yelled.

Except the two of us, all the people in the crowd started to collapse, trembling in fear as they hit the ground. It was like a repeat of what happened in the Broadway Theatre.

"No, no…Don't do this to them! They're innocent!" I told Anthony. He chuckled again.

"And it will all stop if you hand yourself over." His smirk grew as I saw Adrian and his other friend coming up behind him, both wearing casual clothes.

"What?! So it's me you want now?"

"Well, yes. It's not just the iridescent that I desire. According to Eggman, he wants both you and your friend to be captured and brought up to him. But hey, if you're willing to be my girl…I may convince Eggman not to kill you. What do ya say?"

I glared daggers at him. "Keep dreaming…"

He glanced back. "Adrian?"

Adrian's hands glowed more in darker color as the people around us started to scream and fidget. I couldn't bear to see more as I gazed down and made my violet barrier disperse. I felt Anthony touch and tightly grip my wrist.

"Good girl…" He kissed my cheek. I continued to glare him down.

"Adrian, keep up the good work. And Otto, find the other one, just make sure you don't scorch yourself, okay?" Anthony told his friends as he dragged me along. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I tugged at my arm.

"Liar! Let go!" I screamed and tried to fight my way out. However, it was no use. He just grabbed my other hand and constrained both my arms behind my back, making a tighter grip.

As we passed more frightened people, I prayed that Dylan will save them and defeat both Adrian and Otto. I know in my heart that he has what it takes to beat them; he will show no mercy that's for sure.

I also prayed that both Sonic and Shadow will recover quickly. As much I hate to admit this, I would need some help getting away from Anthony and Eggman. My abilities and force field alone wouldn't get me far. I just hope they'll find out in time.


End file.
